Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology
Development Minister Professor Amon Murwira has ordered the scrapping of a $250
000 annual “protocol” budget provided for the minister by the Zimbabwe Manpower
Development Fund (Zimdef) as he moves to stamp out corruption.
The abuse of the fund had gone unabated over the years,
with the most notorious example being that Zimdef of former minister Professor
Jonathan Moyo and his deputy Godfrey Gandawa who were exposed two years ago for
abusing the slush facility.
Prof Murwira told a public consultation meeting on the
amendment of the Manpower Planning and Development Act (Chapter 28:02) at Gweru
Polytechnic College on Monday that the budget was being abused and in some
instances had been used to buy bicycles for the minister’s constituency.
“We intend to reform the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund
to align it with good corporate governance practice by putting in place a board
to be appointed by the minister responsible for the administration of the Act,”
he said.
“There used to be a $250 000 budget for the minister called
protocol. To deal with corruption at Zimdef, I said let’s scrap it. I said let
us remove it because it was prone to abuse by the minister. Some were buying
bicycles and wheelbarrows with the money which is some form of abuse while
children had no funds or resources to develop skilled manpower in the country,”
he said.
In 2016, Prof Moyo was accused by the Zimbabwe
Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) of allegedly benefiting from close to US$270
000, which was siphoned from Zimdef.
Prof Moyo, through his personal assistant, allegedly used
close to US$50 000 from the fund to buy bicycles, which he distributed to his
constituency as well as a US$24 000 loan which he repaid.
“So we will have the board and a chief executive with a
contract of only two five-year terms whose duties will be to monitor and
control the public funds and property so that they are not abused,” said Prof
Murwira.
He expressed concern that while Zimbabwe has a high
literacy rate of over 94 percent, its skills level are at a mere 38 percent.
He said the need by almost everyone to import goods and
services was a true reflection of this.
Prof Murwira said the country has an acute shortage of
skills in the engineering and technology, natural and applied sciences, medical
and health sciences as well as the agricultural sectors.
“From the colonial era to date we have been in a cage, in a
box where we were being trained to look for jobs and not to create jobs and
that has to come to a stop now. With this 94 percent literacy rate, the success
of our basic education system must now be translated into national competitive
advantage through equipping graduates that pass through our higher and tertiary
education system with more relevant modern skills for economic prosperity,” he
said.
Prof Murwira said for Zimbabwe to attain the vision of a
middle income by 2030 and address social challenges of poverty, unemployment
and inequality, there was need to invest in relevant education, training and
skills development and thus the need to amend the Manpower Planning and
Development Act.
“We need to do away with a happy slave mentality where one
is given a car, an office with a television set so that he or she doesn’t think
of innovation to a situation whereby we innovate. The construction of
innovation hubs has started at six universities to foster the spirit of
innovation and entrepreneurship as we move from job seekers to a country that
creates employment,” he said. Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment