Richard Lord

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says the Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP), a mem­ber unit of the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship (PP) Gov­ern­ment, was not un­fair­ly treat­ed as a re­sult of her Cab­i­net reshuf­fle at the week­end.She said that in an in­ter­view with re­porters af­ter yes­ter­day's swear­ing-in of six new min­is­ters and one Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary at Knowsley, Queen's Park West.

The new min­is­ters sworn in were:

Sen­a­tor Ver­na St Rose-Greaves: Gen­der, Youth and Child De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter;

Ra­mona Ram­di­al: Min­is­ter in the Gen­der, Youth and Child De­vel­op­ment Min­istry;

Dr Fuad Khan: Health Min­is­ter;

Kevin Ram­nar­ine: En­er­gy and En­er­gy Af­fairs Min­is­ter;

De­vant Ma­haraj: Trans­port Min­is­ter;

Em­bau Mo­heni: Min­is­ter in the Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Min­istry; and,

Nicole Dy­er-Grif­fith: Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary, For­eign Af­fairs and Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Min­istry.

Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards, in wish­ing all the new­ly-ap­point­ed well, said he had not yet re­ceived the de­tails of the new re­spon­si­bil­i­ties of the min­is­ters.

Min­utes lat­er, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the con­cerns of the Con­gress of the Peo­ple that its mem­bers were un­fair­ly treat­ed in the reshuf­fle were not so.The Prime Min­is­ter said she had lengthy con­sul­ta­tions with COP mem­bers about the pro­posed changes to her Cab­i­net.She said that was dif­fer­ent to what would have hap­pened be­fore when a min­is­ter would have read the news­pa­pers to find out he was fired.She said the high­est mem­ber of the Sen­ate was a mem­ber of the COP.She said for­mer COP can­di­date Nicole Dy­er-Grif­fith al­so was ap­point­ed to the Sen­ate.

The PM said for­mer COP sen­a­tor Patrick Wat­son was no longer in the Up­per House but was be­ing con­sid­ered for an­oth­er ap­point­ment.Trans­port Min­is­ter De­vant Ma­haraj was al­so a COP mem­ber, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said."So I do not be­lieve they have been un­fair­ly treat­ed. They have won six seats in the Par­lia­ment and they have in fact sev­en min­is­ters," she in­sist­ed.She said the "COP mem­bers were not all re­moved and not re­placed by COP (mem­bers)."She said she was "com­fort­able with the changes we have made. I think we have ac­com­mo­dat­ed every­one."She said To­ba­go Or­gan­i­sa­tion of the Peo­ple (TOP) mem­ber Pas­tor Ter­rence Baines was due to be sworn in as a Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor late yes­ter­day.

Ques­tioned about the re­vo­ca­tion of Sen­a­tor Sub­has Pan­day's ap­point­ment, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said he was sacked be­cause "I thought there are oth­ers who could bet­ter serve and I made my de­ci­sion on that ba­sis."On the re­moval of Car­olyn Seep­er­sad-Bachan from En­er­gy to Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion, the PM said she felt the San Fer­nan­do West MP "can bet­ter serve in the min­istry. We need to trans­form pub­lic ad­min­is­tra­tion. If we don't do that, then we will not trans­form the Gov­ern­ment or the coun­try."

She de­nied Seep­er­sad-Bachan's re­moval had any­thing to do with the re­cent NP scan­dal over the award of a $40 mil­lion con­tract.Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the new Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion Min­is­ter "has tremen­dous skills in that ca­pac­i­ty."How­ev­er, Seep­er­sad-Bachan, in an in­ter­view, said she was dis­ap­point­ed by the de­ci­sion of the Prime Min­is­ter to give her that port­fo­lio be­cause she had a pas­sion for en­er­gy.She said, how­ev­er, she would give it her best in the in­ter­est of the sta­bil­i­ty of the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment.