“Very clearly, I have not changed my mind about changes I have to make,” the prime minister said. “I changed my mind about the timing of it.”
While he indicated that he was definitely going to make those adjustments before 2006, he declined to say specifically when he will do it this year or what changes he will make.
Speculation has been rife in recent months about changes to portfolios of the various ministers, but there have been no substantive revelations in that regard as the changes are the prime minister’s prerogative.
Mr. Christie had said in an interview with The Bahama Journal on January 1, 2004 that he was about to reshuffle his Cabinet. It came amid speculation that the changes were about to be made.
Earlier this year, he said, “I’m not one of those who believe that you make changes for changes’ sake. We will be judged on the results.”
The prime minister explained in his more recent interview why he decided to delay the reshuffle.
“I elected not to proceed at the time when I had originally decided that I would do so,” he said.
“One of the reasons was that like the American system where someone is appointed to do a job for a term, I found that ministers were becoming more and more familiar with their portfolios and in the case of some ministers, very, very proficient in the application of their ministerial powers and judgment in their portfolios that I thought to reshuffle and have some other ministers come in and learn it all over again was going to waste a lot of time and because so much of our work was critical to the path of development that it was important for me to allow them to continue in their positions,” he said.
He said that the Cabinet is working on major projects but he expects to be able to effect smooth transitions when he moves ahead with the adjustments.
In the last year, Prime Minister Christie has pointed to key projects he said have demanded the full and consistent attention of ministers already in certain portfolios.
On Sunday, he again pointed to major work underway at Nassau International Airport and indicated that Minister of Transport and Aviation Glenys Hanna-Martin and her team were working hard to ensure the completion of repairs
“Nassau International Airport must now meet the challenge-We are running against time because we have Virgin Atlantic flying 747’s,” Prime Minister Christie said. “Its inaugural flight will be the 29th of June and the runway 1432 must be complete by then. We are going to have a very exciting airport.”
Mr. Christie has also applauded his Minister of Housing, Shane Gibson, for what he termed an impressive housing programme.
Government officials have boasted that they’ve been able to construct more than 800 houses in their first three years of office, more than what the Ingraham Administration constructed in nearly 10 years.
Advisors close to the prime minister have said that it is unlikely that Minister Gibson would be given another portfolio.
Meanwhile, the prime minister has mandated Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell to spearhead an education campaign on the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME), so it is believed that the prime minister would want Minister Mitchell to remain in his present portfolio to continue such tasks.
In the past, there has been a lot of talk about the need to cut down the portfolio of Attorney General and Minister of Education Alfred Sears. In fact, some education officials and teachers have demanded that Education get its own Minister so that he or she would be able to focus more attention on the portfolio.
It’s a complaint Minister Sears has heard before.
Indeed, there have over the last year been widespread reports about who should go where.
A report in the Bahama Journal last November, for instance, indicated that political analysts interviewed for a story on the pending Cabinet changes reached consensus that Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt should be moved from the Ministry of National Security and given a portfolio of Health and Social Services, which is suitable to her personality and her strengths as a politician.
The prime minister in his recent interview said that while he considers his changes, his government will remain focused as it moves into the final two years of its first term in office.
It includes, he noted, a very aggressive agenda.
“We are working on the third phase and ensuring that the framework exists for the third phase of Atlantis. We’re working on a major transformation of Bay Street. We are working on major transformation that I have not yet spoken of for the Hilton Hotel where I expect to have transforming investments in the near future being announced,” Mr. Christie said.
“We are working on transforming Arawak Cay-We’re working on a transforming investment for Cable Beach which will be completed on Wednesday (yesterday).”
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
