Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter/Pro­duc­er

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

The new UNC ad­min­is­tra­tion will pro­ceed with a 35-mem­ber Gov­ern­ment, which in­cludes Cab­i­net mem­bers, min­is­ters as­sist­ing sub­stan­tive Cab­i­net mem­bers, and par­lia­men­tary sec­re­taries.

While 32 mem­bers were sworn in yes­ter­day (Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie were sworn in on Thurs­day) at Pres­i­dents' House, St Ann's, Per­sad-Bisses­sar stat­ed that her choice for the new­ly es­tab­lished Min­istry of Trade, In­vest­ment, and Tourism is cur­rent­ly out of the coun­try and will be an­nounced lat­er.

Yes­ter­day's swear­ing-in be­gan an hour lat­er than sched­uled, as Per­sad-Bisses­sar was re­port­ed­ly de­layed by two ve­hic­u­lar ac­ci­dents while en route to Port-of-Spain.

There are now 25 gov­ern­ment min­istries (in­clu­sive of the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter). Some have un­der­gone name changes, while oth­ers have been split, re­flect­ing an ap­proach sim­i­lar to that of the for­mer Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship ad­min­is­tra­tion.

In keep­ing with the UNC’s man­i­festo promise, the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty has now been split in­to two sep­a­rate en­ti­ties and re­named The Min­istry of De­fence and The Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty.

Mean­while, the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port has been split in­to the Min­istry of Trans­port and Civ­il Avi­a­tion and the Min­istry of Works and In­fra­struc­ture.

And while the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion re­mains, Per­sad-Bisses­sar brought back the Min­istry of Ter­tiary Ed­u­ca­tion and Skills Train­ing.

The Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion has un­der­gone a name change and is now the Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence. While the Min­istry of the Peo­ple is back, it is now un­der the name Min­istry of the Peo­ple, So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices.

A no­table ab­sence is the Min­istry of Tourism, which is now in­clud­ed with the Trade Min­istry.

There are 25 sub­stan­tive gov­ern­ment min­is­ters, four min­is­ters in gov­ern­ment min­istries (some­times re­ferred to as ju­nior min­is­ters) and six par­lia­men­tary sec­re­taries as­signed to as­sist gov­ern­ment min­is­ters.

Some of the new names in­clude Han­son Nar­i­nesingh, Prak­sah Per­sad and Kennedy Swarats­ingh.

Com­ment­ing on her Cab­i­net size, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “I tried to get the best tal­ent that we could, peo­ple who are qual­i­fied in var­i­ous fields. For the mo­ment I am con­fi­dent that we can gov­ern with the Cab­i­net of this size, and if it be­comes nec­es­sary, we can in­crease. There is al­ways room for change.”

In the pres­ence of her new­ly sworn-in mem­bers, Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­mind­ed them that they will be gone if they do not per­form.

Some chuck­led, and Per­sad-Bisses­sar said their laugh­ter was be­cause “they know I will keep my word”.

Turn­ing around slight­ly to face them, the Prime Min­is­ter said, “Last rounds (2010-2015), I didn’t mess around; I didn’t play shy and small. When they did not work and did not shape up, they were shipped out. They ac­cused me of fir­ing so many min­is­ters, so if they don’t work, they know what … swift ret­ri­bu­tion.”