…PPP reverts to old names for ministries
JUST days after entering Office, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administrative has changed the names of several ministries to reflect the old ministerial and administrative system that existed pre-2015.
Under the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Administration, the Office of the President was converted into the Ministry of the Presidency, however, President Irfaan Ali has instructed that it be renamed Office of the President.
Notably, the Ministry of Communities, which was responsible for the Housing and Water Sectors, will now be divided into two ministries – Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Housing and Water – as was the case under both Presidents Donald Ramotar and Bharrat Jagdeo. Those two ministries will be headed by Minister Nigel Dharamlall and Minister Collin Croal respectively.
Similarly, the Ministry of Social Protection, which included the Department of Labour, will be divided into two ministries – the Ministry of Human Services and Social Protection, which is now being headed by Minister Vindhya Persaud and the Ministry of Labour headed by Minister Joseph Hamilton.
Additionally, there will be Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport. Under the Granger Administration, there was a department for Culture, Youth and Sport, within the Ministry of Social Cohesion. Based on the Ministers appointed to serve in the Cabinet, there is no Ministry of Social Cohesion. The Ministry of Business, it would appear, has been dissolved. However, they will be a Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce. The Ministry of Public Security has changed to Ministry of Home Affairs.
The PPP/C Administration has retained the Ministries of Natural Resources, Foreign Affairs, Agriculture and Education. It has however dropped Public Infrastructure for Public Works; Indigenous People’s Affairs for Amerindian Affairs and Public Health for Ministry of Health.
On Wednesday, President Ali swore in a total of 19 Ministers, who will form part of his Cabinet, the majority of them young professionals. The president in his remarks said his appointments bring “youthful energy, experience and freshness.” The group, he said, must be “results-oriented.”
Unimpressed with the composition of the Cabinet, the APNU+AFC Coalition, in a statement said the President’s team seems to be a hodge-podge of misfits and Jagdeo loyalists.
“We take note too that several high ranking PPP executives and leaders have been sidelined or discarded. These include Clement Rohee, the former General Secretary; Indra Chandarpal, head of the women’s arm of the PPP; Robert Persaud, a former Minister of Natural Resources; Shyam Nokta, Odinga Lumumba, Harry Gill, Jennifer Westford, Africo Selman and Dharamkumar Seeraj among others. It is further evident that the Jagan legacy in the PPP has been unceremoniously demolished and discarded.
Today, Guyanese have witnessed what the APNU+AFC has warned of – that the PPP has not, in any way changed. It remains a one man authoritarian cult and this has now been formalised with this fraudulent de facto Cabinet,” the statement ended.
