(Barbados nation) The chairmen of two statutory organisations were promoted to the Ministerial Cabinet in changes announced by Prime Minister Mia Mottley in an address to the nation from Ilaro Court last evening.
Chairman of the Port, Senator Lisa Cummins, will serve as Minister of Tourism and International Transport, while chairman of the Transport Board, Ian Gooding-Edghill, will become Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources.
These changes will come into effect on September 15, 2020 when a new session starts after Parliament is prorogued on August 8.
Cummins takes up the portfolio formerly held by Kerrie Symmonds who will become Minister of Energy, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, while Gooding-Edghill’s post combines two of those formerly held by Wilfred Abrahams and Dr William Duguid.
Mottley said the pair “distinguished themselves as competent hard workers, with a capacity and resolve to a get the job done” and “I have been impressed with them and their stewardship as a chairman of the respective entities over the course of the last two years. They have done well”.
At the same time, elder statesman George Payne (Housing) will no longer hold a ministerial portfolio, nor will Edmund Hinkson (Home Affairs), Trevor Prescod (Environment) or Senator Lucille Moe (Broadcasting). Neil Rowe is also no longer a parliamentary secretary.
“This is not a case of dismissing anyone. I want to make it clear I am committed to ensuring that each former member of the Cabinet is utilised in this country in a manner or in the furtherance of the work of this Government and of this nation,” Mottley said.
The Prime Minister said this was the first in a series of measures to reposition Barbados for the challenges of the new reality that confronts us and “it is not business as usual”.
