They would rather the institution be a stand-alone entity following separation with Lesotho and Eswatini. They also want a commission for an independent forensic audit of the institution to assess its financial status and operational efficiency. The employees aligned to the Botswana Land Boards, Local Authorities and Health Workers Union (BLLAHWU) have since developed a position paper presenting staff concerns. Staff concerns are centred around the secrecy of the IDM closure without prior consultation with them and circumstances regarding the impending merger. These include staff welfare, the impact of the merger on the financial situation of the country, as well as the contribution of IDM locally, regionally and internationally. According to the position paper, there have been some speculations over the closure of IDM since 2022, when it was speculated that the institution would be subsumed into the University of Botswana. “Although this issue disturbed employees, the management did not address the employees in order to give them assurance regarding job security or manage the uncertainty that was caused by the media. Fortunately, the issue was moderated down by the President’s speech which did not include IDM in the State Owned Entities (SOEs) planned for rationalisation,” the employees wrote in 2024, adding that strong speculations arose that IDM was closing, which led to a state of confusion. Moreover, they state there were rumours that the institution would not even have the 2024 July first year intake. This, they say, caused emotional distress to the employees who were still in the dark about what was happening, and like in the past year, no formal communication was made about the issues. “Fortunately, the institution had intake which enrolled over 1, 000 students. This, however, did not alleviate the uncertainty as the closure issue was still lingering and rumoured along the corridors by some managers close to top management. A new development emerged that IDM will be merged with the BNPC and the BPSC,” they further state. On January 29, 2025, IDM staff received an email from the office of the Country Director inviting them to a meeting, which was scheduled and attended on January 30, 2025. The meeting was addressed by the Director of Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM), Gaone Machola, who announced that; three countries; Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini have decided to exit the tripartite.
The closure of the regional office
The decision was discussed and agreed by the ministers and presidents of the three countries. The three countries had decided that each country would determine how they wish to proceed with their local institutions. Botswana made a decision that IDM, BNPC and BPSC will merge. IDM will be teaching out or phasing out academic long programmes, and is expected to wind up the teaching exercise in 2028. IDM will not have the July 2025 intake. Some of the work that has been done by the regional office will be moved to campus.
Regional Office staff will be absorbed into the campus
A team has been set up at regional level that comprises members from the three countries who will be looking at winding down the tripartite operations. A second team will be from the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs who will be working on the merger.
The IDM is posing competition against other public and private institutions
The country has not been doing very well articularly in issues of in-service training. IDM has departed from its original mandate, which is teaching short courses. Following the DPSM staff address, the staff raised questions on staff welfare issues relating to the transition but the DPSM could not answer them to the satisfaction of staff. “Infact, her (DPSM director) attempt to answer questions raised by staff and made it clear that the employees of IDM were never considered as a critical stakeholder in the decision to close or merge it with other institutions,” they wrote. They argue that IDM-Botswana has metamorphosed into a sustainable income-generating institution that offers diverse short courses, which contribute to the upskilling and re-skilling of the workforce. They also assert that IDM has realised the mission behind its formation in those yester-years and now transitioned in response to the needs of the market. “Taking the IDM back to the original mandate would be regressive as the other two institutions IDM is purported to merge with are already functioning in the space,” they also state. They further submitted that the institution has been doing well as a result of the business model it was operating with as a result of its multi-faceted approach in its marketing strategies and visibility it was self-sustaining. However, they lament that in the last three years, the approaches that have been implemented before and were successful for its sustainability were discarded which led to a downward spiral of the finances of the institution. Some of the factors that affected the performance of the institute include but not limited to discontinuing some marketing strategies. They argue that IDM should not merge because IDM Botswana campus is a self-sustaining institution. They discard submission by the director and chairperson of the board that the institution is a financial burden to the government because it is competing with private tertiary schools for students that are sponsored by the government. “In reality, the institution has been funding itself from the proceeds of its coffers and even declared profits in the past financial years. The government subvention only supports the regional office, not the campus,” they wrote. They further take pride in that unlike other State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), IDM Botswana has never had to be bailed out due to dire financial situation as it is a self-sustaining and viable organisation and its business model should be attractive to the government in this era where the country is faced with many economic hardships. The employees also argue that the institute has made evident and indelible footprints in both Botswana and SADC as a region. This visibility, they say, was a result of the existence of the institution in the three countries. As one of the oldest training institute in the country, they argue that IDM prides itself in quality delivery of service. “The programmes are consistently reviewed to ensure that they are aligned to the requirements of the regulatory bodies. The institute has collaborated and built partnerships with internationally recognised institutions around the world such as CIPS, AAT and the University of Bolton,” they state. They also take pride in the institute having carried out consultancies especially under the Public Health Management discipline and Logistics and Supply Chain Management. They state the outcome of these consultancies has helped in shaping and influenced the decisions in the health sector both locally and internationally.
The employees propose the following:
IDM should be a stand-alone entity as it has been the case even within the tripartite. Commission an independent forensic audit of the institution to assess its financial status and operational efficiency. The institution has invested in developing programmes that are accredited and relevant to the market that are running and should be maintained. IDM is self-sustaining unlike other SOEs, which depend on government subventions. Pending staff welfare issues should be addressed; i.e. salary adjustments and staff bonuses from 2018 to date, We propose change of the current management in order for IDM to regain its image and reputation. There are possible cases of malpractice and nepotism among top management that need to be investigated. For example, some employees who have left the employ of IDM under dubious circumstances are still being allowed access to IDM official information. This needs to be investigated as to why it is being allowed by management. The finance manager who resigned because of audit queries last year should be stopped from coming to IDM, get into the financial system and do some work as we witnessed this in the past few months, including this past week. The money stuffed in the offshore accounts should be returned into the IDM accounts in order to improve the [[Eleanor the staff]].
