After just over a year in power the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad-Bissessar reshuffled her Cabinet last month. The move left a sense of puzzlement between what looks like an unbalanced mix of the government trying to become more efficient while consolidating its power within.
The reshuffle saw Finance and Planning Minister Winston Dookeran being relieved of the Planning portfolio. Dookeran has been under constant and unforgiving criticism for the handling of the Clico affair. This latest move appears to give him more manoeuvring room to deal with this troubling area of his finance responsibilities. Hopefully this would give him the manoeuvrability needed to tame the Clico monster that was inherited from the last administration. It has so far proven to be an unmanageable burden for him.
In what remains the most enigmatic move of all, Persad-Bissessar transferred a performing Energy Minister Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan into the role of Public Administration. Seepersad-Bachan is not only a qualified academic, but is also a specialist in the field of energy. Her move to the new post has left many onlookers puzzled.
We recall that Seepersad-Bachan was embroiled in the controversy that arose with the attempt by the Board of National Petroleum to give a contract worth tens of millions of dollars to a company alleged to have close family connections with the prime minister. It was a controversy that was gleefully exploited by the opposition PNM. Perhaps the disquiet that remains over the shadow cast by the issue on this government's commitment to transparency could have contributed to Seepersad-Bachan being moved to a new government location.
However, viewed from abroad through our eyes as investors, we are concerned over what appears to have been a move that has created ripples in what was an energy sector stabilised by a competent and performing minister. Such a sudden, if not precipitate change in a ministry that oversees the engine that drives this nation's prosperity has left many of us abroad shaking our heads in puzzlement. Any perceived instability in this sector may not bode well for investors as ourselves looking on with a view to making commitments to this industry.

We support the call made last week by Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad-Bissessar when she urged her Caricom colleagues to respond to the idea for the introduction of a fast-ferry service between this nation and the Eastern Caribbean.
Persad-Bissessar made the call for strengthening Caricom's linkages via sea transport on her arrival at the 32nd Caricom Summit in St Kitts and Nevis.
"One of the things I want to raise has to do with a fast-ferry link within the Eastern Caribbean and Trinidad and Tobago, which will bring us closer together as we try to improve upon the (regional) integration movement. I don't think we have done enough…" she said.
Additionally, the ferry plan would particularly assist in the movement of people, goods and trade. "Such a project could assist, so it will be something we want to raise... It will cost no money to government," she added.
A proposal before the Trinidad and Tobago government from a foreign company would go a long way in moving this initiative forward, Persad-Bissessar said. "They're asking to use Trinidad and Tobago as their home base, and they're looking at (US) $15 to go to Barbados first of all... It's a project we can put to the heads (of governments)," she said.
Persad-Bissessar's initiative, while not a new one, deserves Caricom's support. She is speaking to the promotion of more intra-regional movement of people within the Caribbean region. It is also a service that would certainly see more movement of goods and the strengthening of trade within the region.
Persad-Bissessar revisiting such a good idea deserves support from her colleagues in the rest of Caricom.