And from the domestic woes of the leader of the opposition to the reshuffling of the Cabinet. As you know, Michel Chebat was moved from the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of Public Utilities and Logistics, with Kevin Bernard taking his former office and Rodwell Ferguson taking over Youth and Sports.
It's executive musical chairs and Chebat ended on a three legged chair! Today we asked the prime minister why he made the unusual decision to shake up the Cabinet after only one year in office.
Despite the well known disarray at the Ministry of Health, Briceno insisted that Chebat's skills were better suited for public utilities and that MOH needed a lot of team building to get back on track, something Chebat made little time for. Here's how he put it:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I think we forget that what Minister Chebat inherited when he became the minister of health. That ministry was in shambles, there was nothing. There was no covid plan, there no plan to get vaccines, there was no plan to get the testing and so he had to get in there and literally work from day one every day late at night long hours to be able to get things done and I imagine when you don't have time to be able to develop relationships, so you step on people's toes and so he had to really grab that ministry and get it going and put it in the right direction, but also at the present moment I believe that I need somebody with a legal mind to be able to manage the public utilities and logistics ministry, because of the challenges we are having right now, the issues of raising rates in electricity or proposed rates that the PUC is presenting, the issues that we may have in BTL and BEL, at BWSL - issues if energy, what energy needs in the years to come. So I felt that maybe its time now to move him from there and put him where we can use his legal mind and then fully realizing also that at the ministry of health we also now have to start to do more team building and one of the best in team building is Kevin Bernard. So I felt that he would be the right person to be able to go in and to work and to fix and to try to build a team and fill all the posts that needs to be done and to take the ministry of health to the next level."
Reporter
"We are in this Omicron wave and we are shifting ministers, so now Kevin Bernard again has to start from scratch to clean up whatever team building messes that Michel Chebat made and while contending with covid."
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"And your point is?"
Reporter
"If this is your best decision considering we are in the middle of a wave."
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I do believe it is the best decision and as I said and explained it that I believe that I needed also Minister Chebat to help us now at public utilities and logistics."
