Yangchen C Rinzin

Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering has asked the labour and human resources ministry to rework on its plan to create a new department, the Department of National Human Resources Development (NHRD) by May this year.

The decision to create the new department was made following an organisational development (OD) exercise by the Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) recommended it.

Labour ministry submitted the proposal to Cabinet last year, which was approved with the condition that it would address the nation’s human resources needs.

Lyonchhen said that the proposal was approved after discussing it with the RCSC based on the department’s objective and the ministry’s role.

He, however, said that the mandates of the department are not clear now. “The ministry has to specify what training is needed, who will do the recruitment, and who will look into the overall human resources requirement.”

He also said that once the Cabinet approved the proposal, the ministry and the RCSC were supposed to meet and specify the mandate. “It was supposed to clarify the activities the new department could execute to ensure it does not duplicate RCSC’s mandate on human resources.”

Prime Minister cited the example of how they expected RCSC to continue to look into the civil servants at the position level of P1 to executive levels and how the new department was supposed to look after the others like recruited on temporary and contracts. “However, it is not clear if the new department would also look into the recruitment of HR for all agencies or only for private and corporate sectors.”

Lyonchhen directed the ministry to go back to RCSC and discuss having a clear mandate.

“If there is an issue while re-discussing, we should redesign and rethink instead of dropping the plan.”

However, labour secretary Sonam Wangchuk said that while discussing with RCSC, it was decided that RCSC would look after the human resources and the new department would take care of those related to skills.

The new department was also supposed to enhance the synergy of human resources development (HRD) plans or programmes that will develop the critical skills and capabilities of the workforce in different sectors.

The department will be a first of its kind that will play a significant role in strengthening HRD for the country.

The department would design a broad sectoral plan for HRD like plan based on the needs of human resources in different sectors of the economy and for the nation. It will also project and plan what kind of skills, training, and courses would be required to meet future human resources.