Reassigning Ministerial responsibilities

Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves last week announced that he is about to rearrange responsibilities within the Ministry of Housing. That Ministry is headed by one of the younger Ministers, Orando Brewster, the elected parliamentary representative for Central Leeward.

The Ministry is now, in the context of the priorities of the current administration, one with ever-increasing responsibilities.

It encompasses the vital Ministry of National Mobilisation with departments for Social Development, Gender Affairs, The Family, as well as Housing and Informal Human Settlements, quite a lot for a young Minister who does not have the support of a Junior

Minister in that Ministry. Housing for instance has grown in importance since the 2021 volcanic eruption and given that both that eruption and the pandemic which preceded it have made huge social demands on the Ministry, it should come as no surprise that the PM has made that announcement. He is yet to specify the changes contemplated.

Prime Minister Gonsalves has been fortunate to have had during his 23-year tenure, a stable administration, allowing him to make unruffled changes when deemed necessary. In fact, he boasts that under his tutelage, no Minister of Government has resigned or been fired, rather unusual in Vincentian politics. This has given him free reign, in spite of relatively slim majorities over the past decade, to make cabinet reshuffles.

The Prime Minister has used this latitude to bring in new, young and particularly female personnel into his administration. Even in the general administration of the public service too, a similar pattern has emerged.

Though concerns have been raised in some quarters about the relative lack of experience, the thinking may be that this is somewhat mitigated by the levels of qualification and new enthusiasm brought in by the new entrants.

Whatever the internal arrangements which may emerge, it may be good for Dr Gonsalves to also use the opportunity to pay some attention to preparing the country and administration for the inevitable changing of the guard.

He himself not only has a lot of ministerial responsibilities, which at one time, also included portfolios held by the former Minister of Urban Development, a ministry now headed by one of the young entrants on the political stage. But he has since added to his work load, having assumed responsibility for a segment of education.

It may be fair comment to say that there are some ministers who still are not given enough public exposure. Even at some government functions, for instance, there is an over-reliance on the PM for delivering feature addresses when he has a swathe of ministers perfectly capable of doing so. Perhaps in contemplating the reassignment of the Housing portfolio, attention could also be paid to such wider issues as well as that of succession.