President Dr Irfaan Ali this afternoon appointed 19 ministers during a simple ceremony at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
They are:
Hugh Todd – Minister of Foreign Affairs
Vickram Bharrat – Minister of Natural Resources
Nigel Deonarine Dharamlall – Minister Local Government
Anand Persaud – Minister within Ministry of Local Government
Joseph Linden Hamilton – Minister of Labour
Kwame Warren Eusi McCoy– Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister
Sonia Savitri Parag– Minister of Public Service
Juan Edghill – Minister of Public Infrastructure
Deodat Indar – Minister within Ministry of Public Infrastructure
Dr Vindhya Persaud – Minister of Social Protection
Colin Croal – Minister of Housing and Water
Susan Margaret Rodrigues– Minister within Ministry of Housing
Robeson Benn – Minister of Public Security
Dr Frank Anthony – Minister of Health
Priya Manickchand – Minister of Education
Charles Ramson Jr – Minister of Culture Youth and Sport
Zulfikar Mustapha – Minister of Agriculture
Pauline Sukhai – Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs
Oneidge Waldron – Minister of Tourism
In brief remarks, President Ali said these ministers will be held accountable, not only by the executive and the parliament, but by the people of Guyana. He said the team will be results-oriented and will be expected to work efficiently and transparently.
President Ali had previously appointed Anil Nandlall as Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, and Gail Teixeira as Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance as well as Brigadier (retired) Mark Phillips as Prime Minister and former President Bharrat Jagdeo as Vice President.
According to the Head-of-State, there is a lot of work to be done. “We have realigned functions of Government to remove duplicity, to make it easy to conduct the business of government,” he added.
President Ali said the team provides, newness, youthful energy, and a skill-set that would allow the Executive to tackle matters such as constitutional reform, electoral reform and other issues of governance.
According to the President, the ministers came from varying professional backgrounds such as private sector, legal, education and medical, among others.
He said his expectation is that the new ministers will be reaching out to every sector with the aim of meeting the needs of all citizens.
He said sacrifices will be required by the ministers and urged their families to provide as much support as possible in this regard.
The President said that there are many other important appointments to be made and this will be announced shortly.
