The Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter has pulled back on its de­ci­sion to ap­point Sen­a­tor Garvin Si­mon­ette as the Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion Min­is­ter to re­place Mar­lene Mc­don­ald.

In a post on the OPM Face­book page a short time ago, the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter said the 2 pm swear­ing-in cer­e­mo­ny was "can­celled in light of new in­for­ma­tion."

The Prime Min­is­ter will re­tain re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for that port­fo­lio un­til a new ap­point­ment is de­cid­ed, ac­cord­ing to the post.

Short­ly af­ter the gov­ern­ment an­nounced its de­ci­sion to ap­point Si­mon­ette - who is a gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor- as Mc­Don­ald's re­place­ment, pic­tures be­gan cir­cu­lat­ing of a 2014 mugshot of Si­mon­ette from the Bre­vard Coun­ty's po­lice of­fi­cer in Ok­la­homa, USA.

The ar­rest record said the book­ing re­lates to a charge for dri­ving un­der the in­flu­ence.

Sen­a­tor Si­mon­ette cur­rent­ly prac­tices as a com­mer­cial lawyer in both con­tentious and non-con­tentious mat­ters and is con­sid­ered by his peers to be one of the se­nior prac­ti­tion­ers in the com­mer­cial law are­na.

He prac­ticed in Eng­land (at Nabar­ro’s and Ma­sons, now Pin­sent­Ma­sons, from 1987 un­til his re­turn to Trinidad in 1994).

He now reg­u­lar­ly acts for both ma­jor pri­vate sec­tor com­pa­nies and in­ward in­vestors to the Caribbean as well as Gov­ern­ment en­ti­ties.

He ap­pears as Coun­sel in both the High Court and the Court of Ap­peal and has con­duct­ed ma­jor com­mer­cial ar­bi­tra­tions.

He has al­so ap­peared as in­de­pen­dent le­gal ex­pert wit­ness on Trinidad and To­ba­go com­pa­ny/com­mer­cial and tax­a­tion law in the Texas Courts.

He was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn, Lon­don in 1987.

Si­mon­ette is law grad­u­ate of the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies and holds an LLM from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lon­don. Si­mon­ette cur­rent­ly prac­tices as a com­mer­cial lawyer in both con­tentious and non-con­tentious mat­ters and is con­sid­ered by his peers to be one of the se­nior prac­ti­tion­ers in the com­mer­cial law are­na.

He prac­ticed in Eng­land (at Nabar­ro’s and Ma­sons, now Pin­sent­Ma­sons, from 1987 un­til his re­turn to Trinidad in 1994).

He now reg­u­lar­ly acts for both ma­jor pri­vate sec­tor com­pa­nies and in­ward in­vestors to the Caribbean as well as Gov­ern­ment en­ti­ties.

He ap­pears as Coun­sel in both the High Court and the Court of Ap­peal and has con­duct­ed ma­jor com­mer­cial ar­bi­tra­tions.

He has al­so ap­peared as in­de­pen­dent le­gal ex­pert wit­ness on Trinidad and To­ba­go com­pa­ny/com­mer­cial and tax­a­tion law in the Texas Courts.

He was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn, Lon­don in 1987.

Si­mon­ette is law grad­u­ate of the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies and holds an LLM from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lon­don.