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KINGSTON, Jamaica, Mar 07 2016 – Members of the new Cabinet of Prime Minister Andrew Holness are scheduled to be sworn in this afternoon.
According to our sources, the troublesome national security portfolio will go to Robert Montague; Audley Shaw will take on finance and planning; Kamina Johnson Smith has been assigned foreign affairs and foreign trade; Ed Bartlett, tourism; Mike Henry, transport; Christopher Tufton, health; Ruel Reid, education, information and youth, with Floyd Green as minister of state; Karl Samuda, industry, commerce, agriculture and fisheries, with JC Hutchinson as minister without portfolio; Delroy Chuck, justice; Andrew Wheatley, energy, science and technology; Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange, sport, culture and gender affairs; Shahine Robinson, labour and social security; Desmond McKenzie, local government; and Marlene Malahoo-Forte, attorney general.
Highly placed sources said the new Cabinet will see the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) being the centre of the Government’s growth strategy.
The ministry of economic growth and job creation, that Prime Minister Holness said during the election campaign he would create, will be based at the OPM.
So too, will the portfolios investment, land, works, housing, water, environment, planning, and climate change.
The OPM will also be responsible for the Urban Development Corporation and the National Housing Trust and will be supported by Dr Horace Chang and Daryl Vaz as ministers without portfolio.
Veterans James Robertson, Marisa Dalrymple Philibert, Everald Warmington, and Ruddy Spencer are not included in the Cabinet.
Veteran parliamentarian Derrick Smith was offered the position of House Speaker but declined.
Another veteran parliamentarian Pearnel Charles was said to have been offered House Speaker, considering his vast experience as one who has been involved with politics for over 50 years, but it was not immediately clear whether or not he had accepted the offer.
