President David Granger is being harshly criticized by the opposition People’s Progressive Party for his recent Cabinet/Ministerial changes within his coalition government.
The opposition party on Monday raised several concerns over the changes and said it was synonymous to the game of musical chairs, but believes at least one of the changes may be necessary.
The PPP is in full support of the President’s decision to move Minister Keith Scott from the Department of Housing. “He has been an abysmal failure”, Party General Secretary Clement Rohee said, while accusing Scott of killing a once dynamic housing sector within seven months.
The PPP General Secretary said the sector is currently on its dying bed and he hopes the new Minister will be able to revive it.
Rohee said the PPP had anticipated the removal of Simona Broomes from the Ministry of Social Protection, but according to him, it was unexpected that she would have been moved to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment. He said the move may have been to keep a watchful eye on the Subject Minister, Raphael Trotman but said it was like “putting cat to watch milk.”
The PPP criticized the work done by Broomes while she held the position of Junior Social Protection Minister and supported the President’s Decision to move her. Broomes was however, praised by hundreds of employees for tackling issues in the labour department that were ignored by the former PPP government.
But Rohee accused Minister Broomes of going off on forays into the interior and in the process offending some supporters of the coalition.
He said Broomes had become unpopular after harassing and antagonizing 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 operations on the concessions.
“Whether she was moved for her performance or non-performance, we should not overlook the conflict of interest that exists,” Rohee lamented.
Broomes has been recognized for experience in the mining sector and her aggression with delinquent employers by President Granger. But Rohee insists that “something must have been rotting in the State of Denmark,” to cause the President to make the changes. He said from his assessment that more changes are likely to come within the next few months.
During his 22 years as a Minister under the PPP, Rohee was shuttled from being Minister of Foreign Affairs to becoming the Minister of Foreign Trade.
By the time the PPP was voted out of office, he had become the Minister of Home Affairs.
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