THE Ministry of Natural Resources has sought legal opinion to fully address claims that Minister in the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, is in a conflict of interest situation, given her past ties to the mining sector.The ministry’s statement comes in light of remarks by General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Clement Rohee, echoing earlier assertions directed at Broomes.

Noting that the PPP’s statement is designed to impugn Broomes’s character, The Ministry of Natural Resources says it “wishes to make it clear that it has abundant confidence in the capacity and integrity of Minister Broomes, and stands firmly behind her in the course of her execution of the responsibilities that fall under her new portfolio.”

According to the Ministry, in the first instance, “We reject entirely the assertions that allude to ‘conflict of interest’ alluded to by Rohee in his statement. That notwithstanding, the Ministry has solicited a legal opinion on the matter of conflict of interest, and will pronounce with greater specificity on this issue very shortly.”

The ministry stated that Rohee’s recent utterance is no more than a red herring, designed it seems to cause the nation to forget the PPP’s mountain of reprehensible transgressions. “Unfortunately for Mr. Rohee, the people of this country have longer memories than he gives them credit for”.

The Ministry of Natural Resources also declared that the shenanigans of the PPP will do nothing to diminish its confidence, and for that matter, the confidence of the Government of Guyana, in the Honourable Minister.

The PPP, on Monday, also criticised President David Granger’s recent adjustment to his Cabinet/Ministers, saying that while some of the changes were welcomed, the others would produce the same results. Rohee, who had been shifted at least three times during his party’s term in office, disclosed: “The changes can be classified as a game of musical chairs; however, one change was indeed necessary, given that the Ministry was on its way down.”

Supporting the decision to move Minister Keith Scott from the Department of Housing, Rohee noted: “He has been an abysmal failure.” Rohee also accused Scott of killing a once dynamic housing sector within seven months. He said the housing sector is currently on its “dying bed”, and he hopes Minister Valerie Patterson will resuscitate it.

Rohee said the PPP had anticipated the removal of Broomes from the Ministry of Social Protection, but it was unexpected that she would have been moved to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment. He said the objective behind the move may have been to keep a watchful eye on senior Minister Raphael Trotman, but the situation was like “putting cat to watch milk.”

He said the work done by Broomes came under heavy criticism while she held the position of Junior Social Protection Minister, and he supports the President’s decision to move her.

Broomes has received solid backing from the umbrella trade union movement GTUC and from several other citizens for the work she has done as Minister in the Ministry of Social Protection, but Rohee accused Minister Broomes of going off on excursions into the interior and, in the process, offending some supporters of the coalition.

“Broomes had become unpopular after harassing and antagonising foreign and local investors. But while the PPP supports the removal of Broomes from the Social Protection Ministry, it is concerned with her placement at the Ministry of Natural Resources and the alleged conflict of interest that arises with her ownership of mining concessions, although she does not have any operation on the concessions, PPP General Secretary Rohee said.

Director of Public Information, Imran Khan, is on record as saying that the principle and practice of Cabinet adjustments, and indeed shuffles, are healthy for a progressive democracy. He said in a recent OP-ED article in this newspaper that changes in Cabinet, whether in the form of adjustments as His Excellency has effected, or major reorganistion, speak to an orientation of being adaptive with regard to managing the nation’s affairs.

“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,” Khan, Press Secretary to Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, has said.

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