Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has announced that Member of Parliament Dr. William Duguid will now serve as Senior Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, with specific responsibilities for coordinating all infrastructural projects.
That, she said, would also include having the day-to-day responsibility of all town planning matters.
Ms. Mottley made this disclosure as she outlined a series of plans and reforms during the Swearing-in Ceremony of Members of Cabinet, the House of Assembly, Senators, and Parliamentary Secretaries at State House today.
Dr. Duguid joins four other Senior Ministers. They are: Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw, who has coordinating responsibility for Infrastructure and is Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources and Leader of Government Business; Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Dale Marshall, who is Senior Minister coordinating for Governance in the Cabinet; Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, and Senior Minister Coordinating for all Social and Environmental Policy; Senator Dr. The Most Honourable Jerome Walcott, and Minister of Energy and Business Development, and Senior Minister coordinating the Productive Sectors, Kerrie Symmonds.
Noting that the traditional structure of Cabinet did not work in small island developing states, Ms. Mottley explained that those who served in small countries had to do more “heavy lifting” than their counterparts.
“We have chosen to break new ground in a smaller Cabinet, but in the sharing of the burden, for as you know, I truly believe many hands make light work. It is against that backdrop, therefore, that I welcome the four senior coordinating ministers and the deputy prime minister to carry the burden…and most difficult challenges facing any post independent government in this country,” she said.
Ms. Mottley stressed that growth must continue to be the first order of business, and it was critical for persons to come to work every day to help with Government’s capital programmes.