At an interaction with the media on Monday last, President Bharrat Jagdeo hedged when asked whether the reports that he was planning a Cabinet reshuffle were true. “There is always a possibility and it is an option available to the President but I am not prepared to confirm this,” he said. Of course he wasn’t. He had said just five days earlier that he was not prepared to ask Local Government Minister Kellawan Lall, who had assaulted a young man with his gun and his vehicle and had fired shots in the air, to step down. If the President were to rearrange his Cabinet to bring in a new minister as some thought, Mr Lall would obviously be the one to let go. There have been calls for this from all quarters.
In fact, Mr Lall should have done the decent thing and resigned already. There must have been some point at which he woke up and thought, ‘what have I done?’ If he hasn’t, all the more reason for him to go.
The Alliance for Change had said last week, that it would have sought to move a motion in the National Assembly for parliamentary sanction against Mr Lall. The day that appeared in the press, Mr Lall did not go to Parliament. However, he was there on Thursday, reading a motion to postpone Local Government elections during which his peers from the opposition mocked him by firing their guns verbally. Mr Lall remained unfazed; heckling in the House is nothing compared to the bad press Mr Lall has received since the incident and which he has so far managed to ignore.
On the other hand, President Jagdeo has ministers whose pro-activity and exemplary performances have not gone unnoticed. One such is Minister of Human Services and Social Security Priya Manickchand. Ms Manickchand has already done more with this ministry in the 15+ months she has been there than her predecessor did in four plus years. The Stamp-it-Out consultations have drawn much public interest because of the issues they seek to address. However, the ministry has now managed to streamline the issue of pensioners voucher books, which had been a trial for pensioners and an embarrassment to the ministry for years. It has also initiated a programme to rescue children living on the streets, which has seen some success. In addition, fewer people are complaining about not being given a hearing when they visit the ministry and about social assistance payout, although the sum given remains meagre.
Several calls had been made in this column over the years for more support in terms of funding, staff and office space to be given to the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security. This has not happened, but it is even more crucial now that government looks at expanding this sector.
With the increase in reporting of rape, incest, domestic violence and other forms of abuse, this ministry could well find itself inundated with cases. And given the steep increases in the prices of consumer items, there is going to be a concomitant increase in poverty and the number of people requiring social assistance. The ministry would need to add to its team of social workers and welfare and probation officers, as they could face burnout with the increase of their respective caseloads. If this happens, their work is bound to suffer and this could set back the strides currently being made.
If there is to be a Cabinet reshuffle and if he is not already examining this, the President should consider delinking the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security from the Ministry of Labour and giving the former its own building. Ms Manickchand should be promoted to senior minister and perhaps have a carefully chosen junior minister, who could complement the work she is doing, to assist her.
