No new Ministry being created for Minister Hastings-Williams

The portfolio of Public Affairs which will be taken up by Minister Dawn Hastings-Williams will not be a new Ministry.

This was clarified by the Ministry of the Presidency under whose ambit the Public Affairs Department falls.

Like Ministers Dr. George Norton, Joseph Harmon, Winston Felix, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, Dawn Hastings-Williams will be a Minister within the Ministry of the Presidency. She will take up her new position on September 01, 2017.

The Minister, who served within the Ministry of Communities since the Government’s assumption to office, will maintain that role until August 31, 2017.

While she is still to be given her Terms of Reference (TOR), the Ministry of the Presidency’s statement said Hastings-Williams will have oversight of the sections, which fall under the President’s Secretariat, administration of the National Endowment for Science and Technology (NEST) Programme and hinterland and rural relations.

President Granger had told media operatives that the move is part of a continuous process of re-balancing Government’s work with the aim of ensuring efficiency and the effective delivery of services.

Speaking with the News Room on Wednesday, Minister Hastings-Williams says she does not feel the move is a demotion.