PORT-OF-SPAIN – The swearing in ceremony for three new ministers in the Trinidad and Tobago government was postponed yesterday with no reasons being advanced for the change.
A brief statement from the Office of the Prime Minister said that the ceremony will now take place tomorrow.
“We regret the inconvenience,” the statement ended without indicating who were the three ministers to join the cabinet of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
The Trinidad Express newspaper, quoting sources, said that Minister of Health Therese Baptiste would be axed from the cabinet, while the embattled Works and Transport Minister Austin “Jack” Warner was expected to be relieved of that portfolio.
The paper said Foreign Affairs Minister Suruj Rambachan would get additional responsibilities with the creation of the Ministry of Information.
The five-party coalition government was swept into office on May 24 last year after it won 29 of the 41 seats in the general elections.
There have been widespread calls for the prime minister to dismiss Warner, following the bribery scandal that engulfed the International Football Federation (FIFA).
Warner resigned his position as vice-president of the world football governing body as a result of the scandal that followed allegations that he and former FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam had offered US$40 000 to national associations of the Caribbean Football Union at a meeting in Trinidad on May 10 and 11, in return for their votes in the FIFA presidential election on June 1.
Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar has said she would stand by her embattled senior minister, who is also the chairman of the United National Congress (UNC), the leading member of the People’s Partnership coalition. (CMC)
