Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor - Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

While the Prime Min­is­ter is yet to com­ment on her re­cent re­as­sign­ment of min­is­te­r­i­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, Min­is­ter in the Hous­ing Min­istry Anil Roberts says the move fol­lowed rec­om­men­da­tions from with­in the Cab­i­net, which took place weeks ago. He is dis­miss­ing any no­tion that it was a sur­prise shake-up.

Yes­ter­day, the Min­is­ter of Hous­ing, David Lee, re­mained silent on the re­cent re­as­sign­ment of re­spon­si­bil­i­ties with­in his min­istry. But one of his ju­nior min­is­ters has re­ject­ed sug­ges­tions that the changes stemmed from their in­abil­i­ty to ef­fec­tive­ly man­age their work­load, de­spite there be­ing three min­is­ters as­signed to the port­fo­lio.

Min­is­ter Phillip Alexan­der said it was done to en­hance their abil­i­ty to de­liv­er on the 20,000 homes promised by 2030.

On Oc­to­ber 4, an As­sign­ment and Re-as­sign­ment of Re­spon­si­bil­i­ties of Min­is­ters was pub­lished in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Gazette, which re­dis­trib­uted du­ties among Gov­ern­ment min­istries.

One such min­istry to be heav­i­ly im­pact­ed is the Min­istry of Hous­ing, which saw four func­tions re­moved from un­der its purview.

Those are the Reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion of Tenure/Hous­ing for Squat­ters, Home Im­prove­ment Grants, Hous­ing and Vil­lage Im­prove­ment Pro­gramme and Gov­ern­ment Aid­ed Self-Help Hous­ing Pro­gramme.

The Reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion of Tenure/Hous­ing for Squat­ters has now been moved to the re­named Min­istry of Land and Le­gal Af­fairs, while the oth­er three re­spon­si­bil­i­ties now fall un­der the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter.

No of­fi­cial rea­son has yet been giv­en by the Prime Min­is­ter for these or oth­er changes.

But the Min­istry of Hous­ing has three min­is­ters over­see­ing its du­ties. David Lee, who is the lead min­is­ter, and two min­is­ters in the min­istry, Phillip Alexan­der and Anil Roberts.

With this wealth of lead­er­ship, Guardian Me­dia sought to ask the min­is­ters if they see this shake up as an in­dict­ment on their ca­pa­bil­i­ties to de­liv­er.

At­tempts to con­tact Min­is­ters Lee and Roberts via phone were un­suc­cess­ful.

How­ev­er, Min­is­ter Roberts post­ed a brief video to Face­book, which he di­rect­ed at Guardian Me­dia.

“The Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter, sev­en weeks ago, asked all min­is­ters, sen­a­tors, and par­lia­men­tar­i­ans for their rec­om­men­da­tions on strate­gic stream­lin­ing of port­fo­lios un­der min­istries to bring ef­fi­cien­cy to de­liv­ery to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. Okay Guardian Me­dia Lim­it­ed?” Roberts said.

Mean­while, Phillip Alexan­der was asked via a phone in­ter­view if any ra­tio­nale was giv­en for the re-as­sign­ments.

He replied, “Un­til the Prime Min­is­ter speaks on it, we want to show some re­straint.”

Asked if he be­lieves their work­load was light­ened due to a per­cep­tion that even with three min­is­ters, they could not cope with it, Alexan­der ve­he­ment­ly de­nied that. In­stead, he be­lieves it is a strate­gic move to en­sure the Hous­ing Min­istry fo­cus­es on build­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing hous­es.

“Re­mem­ber, we have a man­date to build four times the hous­es that the PNM built in ten in five. That is not a sim­ple task. That is why it is such a heavy min­is­te­r­i­al load,” Alexan­der said.

He added, “At the end of the day, those are is­sues bet­ter han­dled out­side of an en­vi­ron­ment that is as fo­cused as we are on build­ing hous­es. It makes life eas­i­er. Less dis­trac­tion. More de­liv­ery.”

Alexan­der said he serves at the plea­sure of the Prime Min­is­ter.

“For me per­son­al­ly, and I’ve said this dur­ing the elec­tions, I see the Prime Min­is­ter as a gen­er­al in an army, and she will put her troops where she needs her troops, where she sees it best. Ul­ti­mate­ly, the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty is hers. And she has to set the coun­try up, set the min­istries up, set the re­spon­si­bil­i­ties up to the best.”

The Reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion of Tenure/Hous­ing for Squat­ters fa­cil­i­tates the ac­qui­si­tion of lease­hold ti­tles for el­i­gi­ble squat­ters and ten­ants in des­ig­nat­ed ar­eas.

The Home Im­prove­ment Grant Pol­i­cy pro­vides a non-re­fund­able grant for es­sen­tial home re­pairs to low-in­come house­holds. Max­i­mum fund­ing for this grant is $15,000.

The Hous­ing and Vil­lage Im­prove­ment Pro­gramme us­es an Aid­ed Self-Help mod­el, mean­ing the res­i­dents pro­vide some of the labour, and the gov­ern­ment pro­vides fi­nan­cial and tech­ni­cal sup­port.

And, the Gov­ern­ment Aid­ed Self-Help Hous­ing Pro­gramme al­lows cit­i­zens to man­age the con­struc­tion of their own homes with fi­nan­cial and tech­ni­cal sup­port from the state. It tar­gets res­i­dent cit­i­zens, both those with and with­out land.