Assembly votes to dissolve ANHRD |12 October 2022

The National Assembly has approved for the repeal of the Agency for National Human Resource Development (ANHRD) Act (Act 14 of 2013) and to dissolve the agency which was assented to by former President James Michel on December 2, 2013.

The Agency for National Human Resource Development (Validation and Repeal) Bill 2022 was                                         approved by 19 members while 10 members voted against the bill.  

Presenting the bill in the National Assembly yesterday afternoon, the Minister for Education, Justin Valentin, said although the act was signed in 2013, which saw the appointment of the members of the governing board and the chief executive officer of the agency, it was never legally brought into operation by publication of a commencement notice.

He said that as the present administration is seeking to dissolve the agency, it was necessary to firstly give the Agency for National Human Resource Development Act a commencing date before it can be dissolved.

Giving the reasons as to why ANHRD has to be dissolved, Minister Valentin explained it is part of restructuring process by government to create a new National Human Resource in line with the country’s national development plan.

He noted that as ANHRD was putting more emphasis on scholarships, with minimal attention towards human resources, a decision was taken to, upon its dissolution, transfer the human resources development section of the agency to the department of Employment which was doing similar human resource activities as part of its function further to collecting vital statistics of local and foreign human resources on the labour market of which, among other information, the agency depended on for its work purposes.

Minister Valentin added that given the impact of Covid-19 in the employment sector, the department of Employment is in a much better position to address human resource issues in the country in regards to lack of jobs and job competency needed in the sector.

He said it was the cabinet of ministers who on July 13, 2022, took the decision to dissolve ANHRD and to transfer the human resources development section to the department of Employment while its function in respect of the management and administration of the Government of Seychelles Scholarship Scheme and tertiary training fund will be taken over and managed by the Ministry of Education. All its employees shall become employees of the government within the ministry or the department of Employment and the assets and liabilities of the Agency shall be vested in, and become assets and liabilities of the government.

He said that students studying locally and internationally will not be affected by the changes to take place and that students wishing to pursue their studies will continue to be assisted with government scholarships.

While the majority was for the validation and dissolution of ANHRD to get the country stable and to move forward in a faster pace with a more dynamic human resource, the minority was against the decision noting that the move had been done before in the past and it did not work, which paved the way for the creation of the agency.

Both sides in the National Assembly congratulated and thanked the ANHRD board, management and staff for the work done to develop the youths and to boost the country with the required human resource capacity.

In his right of reply, Minister Valentin stated that we should do away with the confused mindset by associating scholarship with human resource to which the former is only a component of human resource.

He noted that the department of Employment, which deals with employment and labour issues, is the rightful place to deal with the country’s national manpower plan.

He assured students that the changes to ANHRD will not affect their well being which will be well looked after.

After the committee stage, the 19 Linyon Demokratik Seselwa members voted for the bill while the 10 United Seychelles members voted against the bill.

Patrick Joubert