Panday questions Cabinet realignment

Pa­tri­ot­ic Front po­lit­i­cal leader Mick­ela Pan­day is ques­tion­ing the ra­tio­nale be­hind the lat­est changes to min­is­te­r­i­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, de­scrib­ing the move as a “Cab­i­net re­align­ment” rather than a reshuf­fle.

In a so­cial me­dia post, Pan­day high­light­ed changes that took ef­fect on Sep­tem­ber 30, which trans­ferred re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for sev­er­al pro­grammes and state en­ti­ties among Cab­i­net min­is­ters.

Among the changes, Land and Le­gal Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sad­dam Ho­sein has been as­signed re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the Gov­ern­ment Aid­ed Self-Help Hous­ing Pro­gramme (GASHHP), Hous­ing and Vil­lage Im­prove­ment Pro­gramme (HVIP), and sev­er­al state en­ter­pris­es, in­clud­ing Ca­roni (1975) Lim­it­ed, Gold­en Grove Buc­coo Lim­it­ed, Pa­lo Seco Agri­cul­tur­al En­ter­pris­es Lim­it­ed and the Sug­ar Man­u­fac­tur­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed.

Hous­ing Min­is­ter David Lee has been as­signed re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the Home Im­prove­ment Pol­i­cy and the Orop­une Project, while So­cial De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Van­dana Mo­hit now has re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the Na­tion­al Com­mis­sion for Self-Help Lim­it­ed.

De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge has been as­signed re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for na­tion­al emer­gency and dis­as­ter man­age­ment, the Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment (ODPM), the Na­tion­al Em­blems Com­mit­tee and the Na­tion­al Men­tor­ship Pro­gramme.

Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der will now over­see the man­age­ment of il­le­gal im­mi­grants and de­por­tees, while Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo has been as­signed re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the Agri­cul­tur­al De­vel­op­ment Bank of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Pan­day al­so point­ed to changes in­volv­ing Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen, who now has re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for In­sect Vec­tor, and Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath, who has been as­signed re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for On-the-Job Train­ing.

She not­ed that sev­er­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ties have al­so been re­moved from min­is­ters’ port­fo­lios.

Pan­day specif­i­cal­ly high­light­ed that Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar 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.

Ques­tion­ing the ba­sis for the changes, Pan­day asked whether “ex­pe­ri­ence, ex­per­tise, per­for­mance” were the fac­tors be­ing con­sid­ered in de­ter­min­ing min­is­te­r­i­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.

She then ques­tioned whether “an­oth­er qual­i­fi­ca­tion” mat­ters more, adding: “Time will tell. Buck­le up T&T.”