Information has come into the possession of the FBRK editorial team suggesting that a significant number of scientific staff at the Institute of Seismology are to be sent on "extended leave". Our editorial team has sought to determine how things are within the organisation.
The National Scientific Centre for Seismological Observations and Research, based in Almaty, is the main organisation in Kazakhstan in the field of research into issues of ensuring seismic safety.
The Institute is responsible for an entire system of various monitored parameters, which, incidentally, are not only seismological, but also geomagnetic, geodetic, and so on.
Quite recently, institute staff were told that some of them are to go on unpaid leave.
It is intended to send around 40 workers from the scientific laboratories on temporary rest. The main reason given for this decision is the wage debt owed to staff for May and June 2024, amounting to 20 million tenge.
At the same time, there is information that the cuts did not affect the institute's chancellery, that is, the administrative staff.
Regarding funding, it is worth recalling that in January of this year, the Minister of Science and Higher Education, Sayasat Nurbek, stated that they intended to allocate 4-5 billion tenge for the institute's development in 2024.
Specifically, the funds were meant to go towards purchasing necessary equipment and "strengthening human resources capacity".
Furthermore, in April of this year, during a meeting of the National Council for Science and Technology, President Tokayev mentioned the deplorable state of the institute and instructed the government to work on enhancing its capacity.
Massive "unpaid leave" for scientific staff hardly fits into a strategy for strengthening human resources. It makes one wonder who, then, will be responsible for "enhancing the capacity" of the organisation.
The unplanned leave for the institute's staff began on 20 June and will continue, interestingly, until "the start of work under programme-targeted financing (PTF)".
For the scientific project on seismological research in 2024-2026, they plan to allocate 1.5 billion tenge.
So, it appears that the institute's scientific staff are being forced to take leave, presumably to save money, but with the intention of bringing them back later to carry out the seismological research planned for 2024-2026.
How the Institute of Seismology will function during this intervening period is not entirely clear. Equally unclear is what kind of development for the institute can be discussed when its very functioning is under threat.
We should recall that this year, two earthquakes were recorded in Almaty, reaching a perceived intensity of 5 magnitude. The tremors were registered on 23 January and 4 March.