Current Affairs

Current Affairs

Delano Franklyn Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade

PRIME Minister P J Patterson yesterday named a dozen junior ministers, including the head of his political staff, Delano Franklyn, as well as a former aide to Finance Minister Omar Davies, Deika Morrison.

Deika Morrison Finance and Planning

Patterson has also brought back into the government Errol Ennis, who has been assigned as junior minister to Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke. Ennis, who had served in the finance ministry during the past administration, was forced to resign 17 months ago when it became public that cheques he had written to cover gambling debts had bounced.

Wykeham McNeil Industry and Tourism

Dr Fenton Ferguson, who was Clarke's previous deputy, has now gone to transport and works as the second to the minister, Robert Pickersgill.

Donald Rhodd Education, Youth and Culture

There was no immediate public reaction yesterday to the prime minister's appointment of Ennis, especially in the context of Patterson's new moral crusade and his decision to leave out of his Cabinet the former water and housing minister, Dr Karl Blythe.

Floyd Morris Labour and Social Security

Blythe was forced out of the government in April of this year after a probe into allegations of cost over-runs and corruption in the Operation Pride shelter programme held that he was an interventionist minister who paid scant regard to operational procedures.

Kern Spencer Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of National Security

In terms of the new junior ministerial appointments, Franklyn will serve in the foreign affairs and foreign trade ministry, and Morrison will join her old boss at finance. They will be among four ministers appointed through the Senate and among five who will be part of the executive for the first time.

Morrison, who until recently was the chairman of the Anti-Dumping and Subsidies Commission, will, according to Jamaica House, have responsibility for planning. She will be among two deputies reporting to Davies. The other is Fitz Jackson, whose last assignment in the previous administration was minister of state in the education ministry, in charge of the youth portfolio.

The other newly minted junior ministers are:

* East Portland parliamentarian, Dr Donald Rhodd;

* Former G C Foster College principal and senator, Noel Monteith; and

* South-East St Mary MP, Harry Douglas.

Rhodd and Monteith have been named deputies to Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson, while Douglas will be deputy to Water and Housing Minister Donald Buchanan.

Other rotations from the previous administration include, surprisingly, Derrick Kellier.

Kellier was a minister of state in the Office of the Prime Minister and ran an OPM branch in Montego Bay in charge of western Jamaica. He is also chairman of the PNP's Region Six that covers the western parishes. But in Kellier's ostensible power-base of St James, the PNP lost three of the four seats in the parish, despite the government having spent billions of dollars on development projects in the area.

He, however, has been rewarded with the job of minister of state in the national security ministry, as deputy to Dr Peter Phillips with specific responsibility for parliamentary affairs. He will also be Phillips' deputy as Leader of the House.

Kern Spencer, the PNP Youth Organisation (PNPYO) executive who was appointed to the Senate earlier this year and named a parliamentary secretary for national security, keeps that job.

Wykeham McNeil, who used to be deputy to Portia Simpson Miller in the tourism and sport ministry, keeps that post as deputy to first-time Cabinet member, Aloun N'dombet Assamba, but in a ministry that now includes the important industry portfolio.

The slate of junior ministers is as follows:

Derrick Kellier Ministry of National Security

Fitz Jackson Finance & Planning

Deika Morrison Finance & Planning

Wykeham McNeil Industry & Tourism

Harry Douglas Water & Housing

Errol Ennis Agriculture

Floyd Morris Labour and Social Security

Noel Monteith Education, Youth & Culture

Donald Rhodd Education, Youth & Culture

Delano Franklyn Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade

Fenton Ferguson Transport & Works

Kern Spencer Parliamentary Secretary,

Ministry of National Security