More responsibility for Saddam

Shar­lene Ram­per­sad

Se­nior Re­porter

shar­lene.ram­per­sad

@guardian.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says the sweep­ing changes in her Cab­i­net re­align­ment are meant to “in­crease ef­fi­cien­cy, cut costs and bu­reau­cra­cy.”

The changes, which took ef­fect on Sep­tem­ber 30, place sev­er­al sig­nif­i­cant re­spon­si­bil­i­ties with min­is­ters who did not pre­vi­ous­ly have them, while re­mov­ing oth­er du­ties from their col­leagues (see side­bar). The changes are set out in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Gazette No. 166, pub­lished last Fri­day, Oc­to­ber 3.

The changes came al­most one year to the day the Prime Min­is­ter first re­aligned her Cab­i­net in 2025.

In the lat­est shifts, the li­on’s share of the new re­spon­si­bil­i­ties went to Land and Le­gal Af­fairs Min­is­ter, Sad­dam Ho­sein.

Ho­sein now has re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the Gov­ern­ment Aid­ed Self-Help Hous­ing Pro­gramme (GASHHP), the Hous­ing and Vil­lage Im­prove­ment Pro­gramme (HVIP) and Hy­dro­graph­ic Sur­veys, Ca­roni (1975) Lim­it­ed, Gold­en Grove Buc­coo Lim­it­ed, Pa­lo Seco Agri­cul­tur­al En­ter­pris­es Lim­it­ed (PSAEL), Rin­con De­vel­op­ment Lim­it­ed, Sug­ar Man­u­fac­tur­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed, the Sug­ar In­dus­try Labour Wel­fare Com­mit­tee, Tau­rus Ser­vices Lim­it­ed and TRIN­TOC Ser­vices Lim­it­ed.

Guardian Me­dia asked the Prime Min­is­ter about the added re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for Ho­sein, and how con­fi­dent she was that he could man­age the ad­di­tion­al work­load.

She replied, “Very con­fi­dent.”

In a 2025 Cab­i­net re­align­ment, Ho­sein was al­so giv­en ad­di­tion­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, in­clud­ing Lands & Sur­veys, Land Man­age­ment, Squat­ter Reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion, Val­u­a­tion, Land Set­tle­ment Agency, Land Sur­vey Board and EM­BD, while Con­sti­tu­tion­al Re­form was re­moved from his port­fo­lio.

Ho­sein told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that it’s been one year since Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­clas­si­fied the Le­gal Af­fairs Min­istry as the Land and Le­gal Af­fairs Min­istry.

“To­day, the min­istry af­ter one year with plac­ing fo­cus on land reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion and tenure has been able to de­liv­er on decades-old mat­ters that were left lan­guish­ing- dis­tri­b­u­tion of over 800 leas­es to ex-Ca­roni work­ers, over 250 Cer­tifi­cates of Com­fort, ap­point­ed close to 100 mar­riage of­fi­cers, jus­tices of the peace and bed­side reg­is­tra­tion for births.”

He said through oth­er agen­cies, his min­istry has been “able to near the com­ple­tion of 100 hous­ing units for sale” soon.

“Fur­ther, the min­istry has passed sev­er­al pieces of leg­is­la­tion, no­tably to make the of­fi­cial laws of T&T dig­i­tal and set­tled out­stand­ing land ac­qui­si­tion in To­ba­go and Cau­ra to make hous­ing units avail­able for dis­tri­b­u­tion by the HDC.”

Ho­sein said the added re­spon­si­bil­i­ty will fur­ther stream­line ex­ist­ing and bur­den­some land-re­lat­ed mat­ters to as­sist with the de­vel­op­ment and reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion of these lands.

“At the Min­istry of Land and Le­gal Af­fairs, we look at the dis­tri­b­u­tion of land as restor­ing dig­ni­ty and giv­ing cit­i­zens a fu­ture with an as­set they can use as gen­er­a­tional wealth,” he added.

He al­so thanked Per­sad-Bisses­sar for her faith in him and his min­istry.

Among the oth­er changes, sev­er­al state en­ter­pris­es were re­moved from the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Ravi Rati­ram, in­clud­ing Hy­dro­graph­ic Sur­veys, PSAEL, the Agri­cul­tur­al De­vel­op­ment Bank and Rin­con De­vel­op­ment Lim­it­ed.

Asked about these changes and whether they rep­re­sent a loss of con­fi­dence in Rati­ram, the Prime Min­is­ter said, “ADB is a Fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tion which should be un­der the purview of MOF (Min­istry of Fi­nance). PSAEL man­ages large ar­eas of land; that is why that was moved to the Min­istry of Land and Le­gal Af­fairs.”

In the 2025 Cab­i­net re­align­ment, Rati­ram’s re­spon­si­bil­i­ties were al­so down­sized, with Lands & Sur­veys, Land Man­age­ment, Squat­ter Reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion, Land Sur­vey Board, Land Set­tle­ment Agency and the EM­BD re­moved from his port­fo­lio.

Rati­ram re­tains re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for crop and live­stock pro­duc­tion, ma­rine fish­eries man­age­ment, forestry, and food se­cu­ri­ty pol­i­cy. His port­fo­lio al­so en­com­pass­es state en­ti­ties and pro­grammes such as NAMDE­V­CO, the Co­coa De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny, the Na­tion­al Re­for­esta­tion Pro­gramme and the Youth Agri­cul­tur­al Home­stead Pro­gramme. Calls and mes­sages to Rati­ram went unan­swered yes­ter­day.

Oth­er changes in­clude Hous­ing Min­is­ter David Lee now han­dling the Home Im­prove­ment Pol­i­cy and the Orop­une Project, while So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Min­is­ter Van­dana Mo­hit takes re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the Na­tion­al Com­mis­sion for Self-Help Lim­it­ed.

De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge has been giv­en re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for Na­tion­al Emer­gency/Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment, the Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment, the Na­tion­al Em­blems Com­mit­tee and the Na­tion­al Men­tor­ship Pro­gramme.

Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der has been as­signed re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the man­age­ment of il­le­gal im­mi­grants and de­por­tees.

Asked about this move, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “This was done to eas­i­er fa­cil­i­tate the next phase fol­low­ing the end of the mi­grant reg­is­tra­tion process ear­li­er this year. Im­mi­gra­tion is un­der the purview of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty.”

In the eco­nom­ic and agri­cul­tur­al port­fo­lios, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo takes re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the Agri­cul­tur­al De­vel­op­ment Bank of Trinidad and To­ba­go, while Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen takes re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for In­sect Vec­tor.

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath has al­so been giv­en re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for On-the-Job Train­ing. Calls and mes­sages to his phone al­so went unan­swered yes­ter­day.

En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal is no longer re­spon­si­ble for TRIN­TOC Ser­vices Lim­it­ed, while Tan­coo los­es re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for Ca­roni (1975) Lim­it­ed, Sug­ar Man­u­fac­tur­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed and Tau­rus Ser­vices Lim­it­ed.

Lee is no longer re­spon­si­ble for the Sug­ar In­dus­try Labour Wel­fare Com­mit­tee, while Sturge re­lin­quish­es re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the man­age­ment of il­le­gal im­mi­grants and de­por­tees.

The Prime Min­is­ter is no longer re­spon­si­ble for the Home Im­prove­ment Pol­i­cy, HVIP, GASHHP, Gold­en Grove Buc­coo Lim­it­ed, the Na­tion­al Com­mis­sion for Self-Help Lim­it­ed and the Orop­une Project.

The changes rep­re­sent a broad re­align­ment of re­spon­si­bil­i­ties across Cab­i­net.

Asked her over­all feel­ing about the re­struc­tur­ing, the Prime Min­is­ter said, “As we go along, I will keep re­ar­rang­ing to in­crease ef­fi­cien­cy and cut costs. Gov­er­nance evolves, and changes need to be made to keep up.”

The changes came weeks af­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar shut down spec­u­la­tion that she was reshuf­fling her Cab­i­net.