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Takunda Maodza Harare Bureau
The government has disbanded the Standards Development and Research Unit (SDERU) after it emerged the division was not on the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development’s structure, nearly three years after it was established.
The unit is also not part of the civil service structure although it was funded to the tune of $2 million annually by the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund and had 12 senior researchers, some of whom received salaries from the government and Zimdef.

The unit was reportedly created by Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development secretary, Dr Washington Mbizvo.

Sources in the ministry of claimed the unit was no more than a clever money spinning venture.

“SDERU was tasked with developing profiles and standards of performance by industry. From the standards it was expected to develop curriculum for manpower training in the technical and vocational education sector,” said a source.

“It was also meant to be used in the assessment of industrial training and trade testing. They took personnel from Zimdef and the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology. They drew money from Zimdef and were initially given $3 million.

“Those who came from the ministry were paid salaries by the Civil Service Commission and Zimdef. They were therefore getting two salaries yet you cannot pay a civil servant a salary or allowance without the knowledge of the Civil Service Commission as it amounts to dual employment”.

Documents in our Harare Bureau’s possession show that Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Dr Olivia Muchena announced the dissolution of the SDERU a month ago.

“After analysis of previous briefings and documents submitted to my office, I noticed that SDERU failed to provide a breakdown of its operational expenses. It is common cause the Standards Development and Research Unit is not part of the Civil Service Commission structure and its existence ultra vires,” she said in a memo.

Added Dr Muchena: “I have therefore as Trustee of the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (Zimdef) and as Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, after consultations, made the under-listed decisions based on the critical analysis of the Manpower Planning and Development Act (chapter 28:02) of 1996 as well as the submitted documents.

“Invariably, I have concluded that SDERU be split and disbanded forthwith into two units, one composed of former Curriculum Research and Development (CRAD) staff, who are civil servants, and the other composed of former Zimbabwe Occupational Standards and Services (ZOSS)/NAMACO staff, currently employed by Zimdef. The former group should revert to the ministry to operate under Standard Development and Quality Assurance (SDEQA) whilst the latter group moves back to the NAMACO secretariat.”

Dr Muchena outlined the expanded functions of the NAMACO secretariat which include designation of trades, standards development, profiling of trades and proficiencies.

The newly constituted SDEQA’s functions are: curriculum development and course design, TVET college registration and licensing, TVET college monitoring and compliance and curriculum development recommendation to SDEQA.

Zimdef will fund the operations of CRAD with a budget of $300,000 for the remaining  months of 2014. It will also fund the additional NAMACO activities with a budget line of $60,000 for the same period.

Efforts to get a comment from Dr Muchena and Dr Mbizvo were fruitless this week.

Dr Mbizvo was reportedly out of Harare.

Dr Muchena’s deputy, Dr Godfrey Gandawa, confirmed the development on Tuesday. “I can confirm that SDERU was disbanded and civil servants returned to the ministry and those that were under NAMACO are back at the NAMACO secretariat,” he said.