Renu­ka Singh

For­mer At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi says he is ac­cept­ing his new role as Min­is­ter of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment and Rur­al De­vel­op­ment with “great ex­cite­ment and plea­sure.”

Al-Rawi was re­placed as At­tor­ney Gen­er­al by Regi­nal Ar­mour in a Cab­i­net reshuf­fle yes­ter­day.

He said this new min­istry is one that “lit­er­al­ly touch­es the lives of every cit­i­zen of Trinidad and To­ba­go in the places that they live, work, tra­verse and en­joy.”

“I have been as­signed the tremen­dous re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of dri­ving one of the ma­jor planks of Gov­ern­ment fo­cus by en­sur­ing the de­liv­ery of mean­ing­ful Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment re­form to en­sure the bet­ter­ment of the lives of the peo­ple of our na­tion,” Al-Rawi said.

He said that the ef­fi­cient de­liv­ery of goods and ser­vices “di­rect­ly to the all the peo­ple of our beloved coun­try is my high­est pri­or­i­ty and is the stat­ed vi­sion of our Gov­ern­ment.”

“In my mind, there is no more im­por­tant task - es­pe­cial­ly whilst we re­cov­er from the ef­fects of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic that wreaked hav­oc glob­al­ly and in our coun­try at every lev­el of our so­ci­ety,” he said.

Al-Rawi spoke to the con­di­tion of roads and drainage in the coun­try, say­ing the qual­i­ty of those de­liv­er­ables had a big im­pact on so­ci­ety.

“The mis­sion of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment re­form was a ma­jor pil­lar of the 2015 un­der­tak­ings by this Gov­ern­ment and I am charged with the priv­i­lege of get­ting the job done,” he said.

He thanked the Prime Min­is­ter for his stint as AG and said he would bring that lev­el of trans­for­ma­tion to his new post.

Al-Rawi's Full State­ment:

"It is with a great ex­cite­ment and plea­sure that I to­day ac­cept­ed the role of Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment, which is a Min­istry that lit­er­al­ly touch­es the lives of every cit­i­zen of Trinidad and To­ba­go in the places that they live, work, tra­verse and en­joy.

I have been as­signed the tremen­dous re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of dri­ving one of the ma­jor planks of Gov­ern­ment fo­cus by en­sur­ing the de­liv­ery of mean­ing­ful lo­cal Gov­ern­ment re­form to en­sure the bet­ter­ment of the lives of the peo­ple of our Na­tion.

The ef­fi­cient de­liv­ery of goods and ser­vices di­rect­ly to the all the peo­ple of our beloved coun­try is my high­est pri­or­i­ty and is the stat­ed vi­sion of our Gov­ern­ment.

In my mind there is no more im­por­tant task - es­pe­cial­ly whilst we re­cov­er from the ef­fects of the Covid 19 pan­dem­ic that wreaked hav­oc glob­al­ly and in our coun­try at every lev­el of our so­ci­ety. Every one of us is painful­ly aware that the con­di­tion of our roads, drains and in­fra­struc­ture in­clud­ing the man­age­ment of lands, open spaces, play parks, recre­ation­al spaces, mar­kets, and pub­lic ser­vices bear great­est im­pact up­on the qual­i­ty of our lives.

En­sur­ing the ef­fi­cien­cy and re­form of the four­teen mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions in Trinidad and of the im­pact­ful de­liv­ery of mean­ing­ful ser­vices by the Min­istry in our na­tion will re­dound to the ben­e­fit of us all right where it mat­ters most.

The mis­sion of lo­cal Gov­ern­ment re­form was a ma­jor pil­lar of the 2015 un­der­tak­ings by this Gov­ern­ment and I am charged with the priv­i­lege of get­ting the job done.

I wish to thank the Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter for al­low­ing me the priv­i­lege to lead the rad­i­cal re­forms in the Of­fice of the At­tomey Gen­er­al and Min­istry of Le­gal Af­fairs that has wit­nessed among sev­er­al things, the trans­for­ma­tion of the en­tire ju­di­cial sys­tem, the an­chor­ing of the dig­i­ti­za­tion of all ser­vices at the AGLA which have formed the prece­dent for the Gov­ern­ment dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion.

In my time in ser­vice as the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and Min­is­ter of Le­gal Af­fairs I have had the ho­n­our to pass hun­dreds of pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary laws and have cham­pi­oned the sig­nif­i­cant im­prove­ment of many process­es through de­liv­ery of plant and ma­chin­ery and peo­ple in care­ful align­ment with the law. Im­por­tant­ly we have al­so se­cured Trinidad and To­ba­go's recla­ma­tion of promi­nent po­si­tion in the glob­al are­na and I wish to ex­press my pro­found grat­i­tude to the many amaz­ing peo­ple at the AGLA and the many en­ti­ties that fall un­der the port­fo­lio of the Of­fice for the out­stand­ing work and ded­i­ca­tion over the last sev­en years.

I am elat­ed to de­liv­er that as­signed to me in the on­ly way that I know - which is by suc­cess through hard work and en­ter­prise, with all hands on deck. The trans­for­ma­tion that I achieved at the AGLA which many be­lieved im­pos­si­ble is tes­ti­mo­ny to my faith that I can bring mean­ing­ful re­lief and hap­pi­ness to Trinidad and To­ba­go."

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