Former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance Vishnu Dhanpaul landed at Piarco International Airport on Friday night to join the Stuart Young-led Government.
According to sources, Dhanpaul is to assume management of the Finance Ministry, replacing incumbent Colm Imbert, who served in that capacity for the entire ten-year tenure of outgoing Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley. Young is to be appointed prime minister tomorrow morning by President Christine Kangaloo.
Dhanpaul was most recently Trinidad and Tobago’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, but he has worked in the Ministry of Finance in progressive leadership roles for many years since the 1990s, before retiring in 2021.
He is currently a member of the Evaluation Committee appointed by the Cabinet to review bids for the Guaracara refinery.
That committee recently made recommendations to the Cabinet to accept Nigerian company Oando PLC as the operator of the refinery.
Dhanpaul has served on the boards of Air Jamaica, Caribbean Airlines, Trinidad Generation Unlimited, Agricultural Development Bank, Chaguaramas Development Authority and National Investment Fund Holding Company, as well as on the Central Bank in an ex-officio capacity.
Dhanpaul, a CIC old boy, has worked closely with former finance ministers, Patrick Manning, Wendell Mottley and Imbert, as well as Winston Dookeran. Sources said Dhanpaul never was a political person, never attended any People’s National Movement (PNM) events and has operated solely as a professional in the Ministry of Finance.
Imbert court losses
Dhanpaul is likely to be the only new face in the Young Cabinet. He will take up the senatorial position left vacant by Attorney General Reginald Armour, who departs for the OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States) to take up an appointment as a judge.
Armour, who replaced Faris Al-Rawi as Attorney General in March 2022, has not had the most remarkable tenure as AG.
Sources said that Imbert, who held the record as the longest serving Minister of Finance, is likely to be given the Public Utilities portfolio.
He has been involved in a number of controversies, the last being his fight with Auditor General Jaiwantie Ramdass, which he lost in the court. The Government, in a rare moment of concession of defeat, decided not to pursue this matter.
Imbert also lost in the court following his dismissal of former Central Bank governor Jwala Rambarran. Early in his tenure as minister, while addressing a high-level Caribbean forum hosted by the Government and the International Monetary Fund in November 2016, Imbert angered the population when he said that even though the government had raised the price of gas on three occasions, the population had not rioted as yet.
“I increased the price of fuel by 15% and then realised that was not enough. I came back again in April and raised it by another 15%, and I came back again just a few weeks ago and raised it by another 15%. They haven’t rioted yet,” he said with a laugh.
Imbert also lost a private matter in the court in which former minister Mustapha Abdul Hamid sued him for defamation. He has to pay $296,500. Justice Geoffrey Henderson, in written ruling on February 9, upheld Imbert’s application for a stay, provided that he deposits the full judgment sum of $296,500 into the court within 29 days.
Armour goes,
Scotland in?
Meanwhile, sources said Minister in the Ministry of National Security Keith Scotland, who was made a senior counsel last year, is likely to be the replacement for Attorney General Armour.
And Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales is to become the new National Security Minister, according to sources.
Gonzales was a former policeman and has acted as National Security minister on a number of occasions when Hinds was overseas. Gonzales has also always been a member of the National Security Council.
Hinds, who has held the National Security portfolio in the face of calls for his removal, is expected to join Dr Keith Rowley on the back bench.
Sources pointed out that since Hinds, like Rowley, is bowing out as MP anyway, his movement to the back bench will not be a major matter and is not expected to be for any lengthy period.
Sources said Young is holding his cards very close to his chest with respect to ministerial portfolios, and his colleagues have not been informed of what positions they will be given.
Cabinet colleagues agreed that the biggest shake-up would be Imbert’s move, especially since Imbert has been approved as a candidate for the 2025 general election.
Sources pointed out that Gonzales, who is an attorney with a good command of the law, is also chairman of the Legislative Review Committee. This means he could just as easily fit into the Attorney General’s role, especially since he has acted as Attorney General.
All ministers in the Rowley Cabinet automatically vacate their positions once Young is appointed at 10 a.m. tomorrow.
Young will then have the task of advising President Christine Kangaloo on the members of his Cabinet.
Section 77 (3) states: A Minister other than the Prime Minister shall vacate his office a) when any person is appointed or reappointed as Prime Minister.
Sources said the newly appointed ministers would be basically members of a caretaker Cabinet.
The Cabinet shake-up is perhaps Young’s way of shaping his own team, demonstrating his willingness to bring in new, fresh faces, in the hope of projecting his youthful dynamism and progressive vision, observers said.
However the question is who will now hold the portfolio of Minister of Energy—will Young continue to be Energy Minister as well as Prime Minister, or whether he may consider Imbert, who is currently chairman of the Energy Committee of Parliament?
Letters to President
On Wednesday, outgoing Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley submitted his letter of resignation to the President.
On that day, the President also received a letter from the 19 PNM MPs indicating their support for Young as prime minister. Because Faris Al-Rawi was overseas, his letter was an individual one, while the letter from the 19 MPs was a collective one.
On Wednesday, Young also submitted a letter to the President indicating his willingness to accept the office of Prime Minister.
This is in keeping with Section 76 (b) which states: “Where there is occasion for the appointment of a Prime Minister, the President shall appoint as Prime Minister—
a) The Member of the House of Representatives who is the Leader in that House of the party which commands the support of the majority of members of that House; or
b) Where it appears to her (the President) that that party does not have an undisputed leader in that House or that no party commands the support of such a majority, the member of the House of Representatives who in his judgment is most likely to command the support of the majority of members of that House; and who is willing to accept the office of Prime Minister.”
On Wednesday, Rowley chaired his final meeting of the Cabinet, and there was also a Cabinet lunch in Rowley’s honour.
Sources said there were some tears.
One of the questions that many in the country are asking is whether Young will go for an early election.
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