Dr. Arnoldo Ventura (left), scientific adviser to the Prime Minister enjoys a joke with Donald Buchanan, Minister of Information and Development, with chairperson Merline Bardowell, executive director of the National Commission on Science and Technology (NCST) at its final consultation on the draft biotechnology policy last Thursday, held at Jamaica House. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Scientists are protesting Government's plan to relocate the National Commission on Science and Technology (NCST) from the Prime Minister's to the Ministry of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce (MITEC) which they fear would relegate the importance of the sector.

The NCST was last year made a statutory body by Government to give it the legal authority to carry out its mandate as the body overseeing science in Jamaica.

News of the move comes several weeks after the confidence-boosting revelation of research findings into the anti-cancer properties of two endemic Jamaican plants. Government has pledged to help fund the project with the aim of developing pharmaceutical drugs.

Vital that it remain

In a draft letter obtained by The Gleaner to be addressed to Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, the NCST said it was vital that it remain at Jamaica House, as it had under her predecessor P.J. Patterson.

"If the nation's premier S&T (Science and Technology), management and advisory body are removed from this office, a worrying signal will be conveyed to the public, both at home and abroad, and its central importance to the affairs of the nation will appear to have been weakened," said the letter.

MITEC Junior Minister Kern Spencer defended the move.

"The science and technology portfolio moved to this ministry with the new government but it doesn't make it any less important but it is just part of that reconfiguration," said Mr. Spencer.

NCST Executive Director Merline Bardowell said she had nothing against the science ministry but opposed the move nonetheless.

"Because if science and technology are housed in the highest level of government you are likely to get more support. And the NCST was intended to be an umbrella which the Office of the Prime Minister allows for this and with the ministry it is not so easy," Mrs. Bardowell said.

Review draft policy

Speaking last week Tuesday at a workshop in Kingston to review the Draft National Science, Technology and Innovation policy Dr. Arnoldo Ventura, scientific adviser to the Prime Minister since 1989, said that it was an "illogical move".

"You have science and technology issues that cut across different ministries such as agriculture and environment and unless it is under the Prime Minister, it never succeeds," said Dr. Ventura.

He reasoned that other countries had enjoyed successful science policies by following the example of Jamaica in prioritising science by placing it under their head of government's portfolio.

- R.S.

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