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Tuesday, July 8, 2025

PS shake-up at National Security Ministry

by

35 days ago
20250603
FILE: – Ministry of National Security offices at Temple Court.

FILE: – Ministry of National Security offices at Temple Court.

A new per­ma­nent sec­re­tary was ex­pect­ed to be post­ed to the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry yes­ter­day, fol­low­ing the shift of that min­istry’s act­ing per­ma­nent sec­re­tary to the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter and a probe of for­mer Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds’ re­cent vis­it to the min­istry.

Of­fi­cial sources con­firmed this yes­ter­day, shifts of per­ma­nent sec­re­taries are so far known to have af­fect­ed a hand­ful of min­istries and sev­er­al PSs.

Last week, Guardian Me­dia re­port­ed that the PS in the Trade In­vest­ment and Tourism Min­istry, Ran­dall Karim, was switched with the PS from the For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­istry. The deputy PS in For­eign Af­fairs was al­so trans­ferred.

The Works Min­istry’s per­ma­nent sec­re­tary is on pre-re­tire­ment leave. A deputy PS is op­er­at­ing, sources added. The PS from Pub­lic Util­i­ties was re­port­ed­ly trans­ferred to Works.

Most re­cent­ly, the PS in Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty was trans­ferred to the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter fol­low­ing a probe of Hinds’ May 29 vis­it to the min­istry.

Hinds had ex­plained he’d com­mu­ni­cat­ed via phone with the PS of the min­istry and the con­ver­sa­tion re­vealed there was a cheque due and ready for him at the of­fice. With the PS’s agree­ment, he said he pro­ceed­ed to the of­fice to col­lect it, drove to the min­istry’s carpark and the PS emerged from the el­e­va­tor and hand­ed him the cheque. Hinds said he left and made no re­quest of the PS or any­one for any­thing.

Sources said that PS, plus an­oth­er PS and a se­nior min­istry staffer, were sub­se­quent­ly asked to re­port to the OPM for trans­fer.

Jus­tice, De­fence and Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ters De­vesh Ma­haraj, Wayne Sturge and Roger Alexan­der didn’t re­ply to calls or mes­sages on the mat­ter yes­ter­day.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so didn’t re­ply to texted query on the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty is­sue and per­ma­nent sec­re­tary shifts.

Mean­while, there was no re­ply from Gov­ern­ment House leader Bar­ry Padarath on when Par­lia­ment will re­sume and what mat­ters will be dealt with.


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