05 Dec 2017

There are 16 employees in strategic/senior management positions of the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security.

Minister Advocate Sadique Kebonang was responding to a question from Ghanzi North MP, Mr Noah Salakae. These, he said, constituted five in F band and 11 in E band, adding that the current lowest qualification for the employees was bachelor’s degree.

“The total number of middle management and operational cadres in the ministry is 260, and the current highest qualification in these cadres is master’s level,” he said. The ministry, he said, always had a training budget for up-skilling employees through short-term and long-term programmes.

Over the years, he said the budget had been declining because of the challenges faced by the country “and need to prioritise on the national priorities to serve citizens of Botswana.

“Every time we experience budgetary cuts, the training accounts suffer the most. Nonetheless, to augment the limited budgets, the ministry has resorted to encourage its employees to enroll for part-time long-term programmes as they are cheaper,” he added.

He said the ministry also enjoyed benefits of training through donor funded agencies, as most of the time the programmes were peculiar to the ministry and did not compete with other ministries.

Ghanzi North MP, Mr Noah Salakae wanted to know the current lowest qualification in the senior/strategic management cadre of his ministry and the current highest qualification in middle management and operational cadres of the ministry.

He also wanted to know whether the ministry had a budget for up-skilling employees and the cost for the past five financial years.

Tuition budget and allowances budget for financial year 2017/2018 and 2016/2017, he said, was more than P1.4 million and more than P1 million as well as more than P2 million and more than P1.4 million, respectively. For 2015/2016, 2014/2015 and 2013/2014 financial years, he said his ministry’s tuition budget and allowances budget was more than P1.7 million and more than P1.1 million, more than P1.8 million and more than P1.1 million as well as more than P4.6 million and more than P1.7 million, respectively. ENDS