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Save Romania Union (USR) deputy Iulian Bulai will submit a draft law by which the Academy of Scientists of Romania (AOSR) will function only from own sources of financing, the Save Romania Union (USR) informs through a release.
USR mentions that the draft law comes to continue the demarches of the Union of December last year to cut, by amendments proposed to the budget on 2020, "the financing of pseudo-academies of science and is all the more necessary now," when the coronavirus pandemic is gravely affecting the budget of Romania.
"Unlike the large majority of EU states with an academic tradition, Romania holds, established through various laws, a number of five institutions with the scientific consecration of the title 'academy', in addition to the Romanian Academy. In what regards the Academy of Scientists of Romania, it's notable that it is the result of converting a private association into a public institution and that an analysis of its activity reports in the past five years and the associated budgets indicates a profound lack of research activities, of factual scientific contributions or participations in public dialogue on topics of societal interest, that would indicate the public interest in the name of which the state subsidy is granted," deputy Iulian Bulai mentions.
"For the year 2019, AOSR had an initial budget of 10.65 million lei, of which 60 pct were destined for payment of members' indemnity and 25 pct for the salaries of staff. It's not a surprise if, for example, at the level of September 2019, we see that the AOSR chair had an indemnity of 21,840 RON, and the deputy chairs - 16,640 RON. Only 238,000 RON were destined in 2019 to activities per se. It's worth noting, at the same time, that in the past three years the AOSR expenses, a structure filled with politicians and under the patronage of the PSD's honorary chair, Ion Iliescu, have gone up 49 pct," the release shows.
According to the same source, in the current year, following amendments submitted by the USR to the state budget for 2020, AOSR is financing itself from its own sources, but "the functioning law needs to be modified so that this exception becomes the norm for the future."
