WITH the recent adjustments in ministerial responsibilities, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo has been handed two key portfolios – governance and constitutional matters.Nagamootoo, who had been holding the responsibility for public information, now has, as part of his gazetted functions, the following responsibilities: governance, constitutional matters and parliamentary affairs.

Minister Cathy Hughes, who has been given the portfolio of Public Telecommunications and Tourism, will now also be in charge of the Guyana Post Office Corporation.
This ministerial responsibility was previously held by Annette Ferguson, Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure.

After seven months in office, President David Granger made the changes to his Cabinet two weeks ago. A release from the Ministry of the Presidency had said that the Head of State made it clear that these changes do not involve any changes to his Cabinet, and do not mean that there is an increase in the size of the Cabinet or that any reshuffling has taken place.
They are, instead, a step towards developing capacity in certain policy areas.

Regarding Minister Cathy Hughes, President Granger said, “The reason is that, after seven months, we detected a gap — that there is no single spokesperson in the National Assembly, a Ministerial spokesperson dealing with the digital economy [and] dealing with information technology. So we decided that it was necessary to have a minister responsible for information and communication technology.”

Additionally, the Ministry of Governance and the Protection of the National Patrimony was renamed the Ministry of Natural Resources, with Governance going to Prime Minister Nagamootoo and Minister Raphael Trotman taking charge of Natural Resources.

Minister Simona Broomes has also been moved from the Ministry of Social Protection to be Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources. The President had said that her knowledge of the hinterland makes her a great asset to the Ministry of Natural Resources.

“Minister Broomes has tremendous energy and skill, and she is going to be functioning from the Ministry of Natural Resources. She has a very good knowledge of the hinterland, and we are concerned with the enforcement of certain practices and regulations in that Ministry,” the President said.

Minister Keith Scott has meanwhile been moved to the Ministry of Social Protection, and will be responsible for labour issues.

A new minister within the Ministry of Communities, Valerie Sharpe-Patterson, has also been appointed. In an OP-ED in this newspaper last week, Director of Public Information, Imran Khan, had said that: “Today’s global construct is dynamic, fast-moving and ever-changing. Government and its leaders must constantly take decisive action, after careful review and assessment, to keep apace of the needs of the people and the national priorities. As a conscious practice, governments must seek to avoid being inflexible and resistant to change and adjustments, as these are red flags on a path to unproductivity.”

He said, too, that it can be expected that Cabinet review and adjustment will be a constant feature of the Granger Administration.

The end of the budget year and the 2016 budget presentation being imminent, this has presented an ideal opportunity for review, re-organisation and refocusing, Khan said.

He said that in May 2015, when the Cabinet was appointed, it was done on the basis of the best information available at the time, along with the priorities and policies outlined in the APNU+AFC Coalition manifesto for the May 11th election.