President David Granger should “come clean” and state what exactly caused him to strip Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman of his responsibility for the oil and gas sector, which would soon be placed under the Ministry of the Presidency instead. This is according to Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo who believes that there might be a specific reason why such a move was taken.
“What did he (David Granger) discover that caused him to take away the portfolio from (Raphael) Trotman and he needs to come clean with the country. Don’t cover it up!” Jagdeo stated.
The announcement of Trotman being stripped of his responsibilities for oil and gas sector was made in a taped interview with the Department of Public Information, where he said, “Government will, in the coming months, establish the Department of Energy which will be housed in the Ministry of the Presidency.”
Trotman said also that the department will be “focused only on the development of the petroleum sector,” based on a proposal that he made to President David Granger last year.
“Eventually, the expectation is that the Ministry of Natural Resources will hand over responsibility of the function of petroleum to this department and we will see a more direct and focused mandate from this Department of Energy and we will, of course, as a Cabinet be supporting the Department.”
This decision was handed down at Cabinet’s meeting on Tuesday.
Nevertheless, Trotman has been appointed head of the task force which will be responsible for submitting to Cabinet a proposal on how the Department of Energy is to be structured and staffed.
“This task force will be meeting and will make a proposal to Cabinet as to how the new department of energy will be comprised, staff and what its mandate will be,” Trotman said.
There have been several calls from various stakeholders over the past few months for Trotman to be removed from his position as Minister over his handling of the oil and gas sector.
