The Gopabandhu Academy of Administration is headed by the Director General, Training Coordination drawn from the senior-most levels of the State IAS cadre. It has a faculty drawn from among the officers belonging to the Orissa Administrative Service, Orissa Finance Service and the Orissa Education Service, which constitutes the in-house core of the training expertise available to the Academy. The Academy has wide contacts with serving and retired civil servants both of the State and Central Government, academics, Non-Government Organisations and other professionals whose fund of knowledge and expertise is drawn upon for the conduct of various training courses in the Academy.

    A Natural Disaster Management Cell (NDMC) has been established in the Academy under the Central Plan Scheme since 1996. Previously, NIDM, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, New Delhi was funding the Training Programmes of the DMC under the head "Non-plan scheme of financial Assistance to ATIs and other Training Institutes / UTs for Operation of Faculty / Centre of Disaster Management". The scheme was operational during the years 2010-11 and 2011-12. NIDM stopped financing under the scheme from March, 2012 and the state Government has taken over the responsibility of finance for continuance of the programme. For capacity building programmes of DMC, funds are being provided by OSDMA, Bhubaneswar out of 13th Finance Commission grants to the state. The NDMC conducts various disaster related training programmes. The Academy has built up considerable in-house training capability in different aspects of disaster management, preparedness, prevention, administration of relief, reconstruction and redevelopment works.

     The State Gazetteers establishment was amalgamated with Gopabandhu Academy of Administration with effect from 1st July, 1999. The expertise of this wing in undertaking research, record keeping, documentation and translation activities has added to the academic strength of the institution. After the merger, the Academy has taken over the responsibility of publishing Odisha District Gazetteers. Prior to that all the gazetteers of the thirteen districts, a supplement, State Gazetteers in three volumes and a gazetteer in Odia translation were published after the merger three more Odia gazetteers in Odia translation have been published. The four gazetteers in Odia translation are of Dhenkanal, Kalahandi, Koraput and Sundargarh. Sundargarh District Gazetteer in Odia has been uploaded at GAA website. Currently Puri District Gazetteer in Odia translation is in the stage of proof reading. It is scheduled to be published and uploaded simultaneously on the GAA website in 2014. The remaining published gazetteers are being digitised so that they could be uploaded too. As regards translation into Odia of the balance gazetteers, those of Cuttack, Sambalpur and Mayurbhanj are being edited. The remaining district gazetteers in English which are translated to a great extent will soon be finalised. Also, steps are being taken to compile gazetteers of the newly formed districts, which will be done in a phased manner.

     The Gopabandhu Academy of Administration has been in the forefront of capacity building within the state government for implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. At the initial stages, a series of training programmes aimed at bringing about an attitudinal change and development of skills in the officers of the state government for successful implementation of the Act was taken up by the Academy. The Academy is organising Innovative Awareness Generation Programmes on RTI and Training of District Resource Persons, State Public Information Officers and Appellate Authorities. Some of the major components of the project are Training of District Resource Persons on RTI with a view to creating a pool of District Level Resource Persons who will conduct Training of various stakeholders such as Appellate Authorities, PIOs, APIOs, Organisation of mass awareness generation campaign, publication of guidebooks on RTI in Odia language, etc.

    The Intensive Training Programme – Training for All was started in the year 2009-10 in the Small Animal sector under the caption “Capacity Building for Livelihood Improvement through Small Animal Farming”. The target group was Veterinary doctors and Livestock inspectors working under the Directorate of Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Services. Gopabandhu Academy of Administration had collaboration with Fisheries & Animal Resource Development Department and the Society for Management of Information, Learning and Extension (SMILE).