-President says Cabinet changes prudent, timely

PRESIDENT David Granger has deemed the “shifting” of ministerial portfolios of the Ministers of Public Health, Social Cohesion and Social Protection as a “positive move” and one that is “prudent and timely” at this time of the year.

The changes, which were first reported by the Guyana Chronicle, shows Dr George Norton assuming the role of Minister of Social Cohesion, the Public Health ministerial portfolio being assumed by Volda Lawrence and Government Chief Whip, Amna Ally shifting to head the Ministry of Social Protection. These changes became effective on Tuesday, January 03, 2017.

Speaking on the reshuffle on Tuesday, the President said that as head of the government, it is his responsibility to continuously assess the ability of the Cabinet in order to fulfill its function. He said that he found it necessary to assess the manner in which the three government ministers have been performing, noting that the move was undertaken to ensure the government continues to deliver on the quality of public service to the populace.

He reminded that at the beginning of 2016, Minister of Public Telecommunications, Catherine Hughes and Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman were appointed to their current portfolios.

Dr Norton had been at the centre of several public criticisms while heading the Public Health Ministry in 2016.

“As you know during 2016 there were some criticisms and I felt that the criticisms were detracting from the performance of the Cabinet as a whole,” the Head of State said. He said he believes it is prudent and timely to make the changes at the beginning of 2017.

“It’s a positive move because as you know some criticism has been made about the quality of national unity and social cohesion in Guyana,” President Granger said.

He noted that Dr Norton joined the APNU as leader of the Guyana Organisation of Indigenous Peoples (GOIP), adding that he has wide knowledge of the hinterland. He explained that cohesion has a spatial dimension and Dr Norton has an advantage in his knowledge of the hinterland, noting that the government has always championed closing the gap between the interior locations and the coastland.

The President said that he is happy that Dr Norton has agreed to serve as Minister of Social Cohesion, while noting that Lawrence has brought managerial skills to the Public Health Ministry and as such she is ideally suited to carry out the functions of her new portfolio. He also pointed to the experience of the three ministers in the National Assembly as he spoke of Ally’s position as Government Chief Whip. President Granger expressed confidence that she will supplement the work carried out by Minister Lawrence.

It is the second time President Granger has made changes to his Cabinet and it comes at a time when there have been criticisms about the performance of some ministers. The move also came as a surprise as President Granger had said in September that he saw no need at that time for a reshuffling of his Cabinet. He had accepted then that errors were made by members of his Cabinet, but noted that none amounted to criminality. “Every Government makes errors, and we just want to ensure we make fewer and fewer errors as we go along. But we have learnt a lot over the last 15 months,” the President had said. “Some of them are human, some are administrative errors, and some are as a result of what was inherited,” he had declared, noting that the changes made to his Cabinet in January 2016 were designed to improve Cabinet’s performance.

NECESSARY SHIFT
Meanwhile, a senior administration official had disclosed to this newspaper on Sunday that the President deemed it necessary to remove Norton from the Ministry of Public Health where he served as the senior minister since the APNU+AFC coalition Government took office because he believes that he was unable to focus on his mandate.

“He spent more time fighting the attacks as opposed to doing work in accordance with his mandate…his attention was elsewhere,” the source stated. The source noted that Dr Norton should have been focused more on administrative and management duties of his office; and it is believed that President Granger has replaced him with Minister Lawrence as she is skilled in management and administrative responsibilities.

Dr. Norton is an ophthalmologist by profession and was educated in Cuba, where he graduated with a Degree in Medicine from the Superior Institute of Medical Science in 1984 and specialised in ophthalmology in 1988. He is co-vice chairperson of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), and has been a parliamentarian since 2001. Dr. Norton had served as his party’s shadow minister of health.

Over the past six months, Dr. Norton had been in the hot seat with several allegations being levelled against him; chief among them being what had been described as the poor handling of the country’s drug-procurement system.

The APNU+AFC Government, when it took office, discontinued the sole-sourcing of drugs and pharmaceuticals as had obtained in the past under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration; however, it was discovered that competitive bidding was not used in the procurement of a secondary bond for the Ministry of Public Health to store drugs and pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Norton had come under intense fire from the Opposition for Government’s decision to rent a storage facility located in Sussex Street, Charlestown, from Linden Holdings Inc. owned and operated by businessman Larry Singh. Singh is closely associated with the People’s National Congress (PNC), a major political party within the APNU faction of the Government.