Manning hires woman Finance Minister

Prime Minister Patrick Manning announced yesterday that there is to be an addition to his Cabinet — a woman.

The Prime Minister said no more, except to reveal that the appointment was imminent. But his announcement, which was made quite casually, left  his audience at the conference of the Trinidad and Tobago Federation of Women’s Institute’s and the national community in suspense. Sources said yesterday that the new appointment is likely to  be National Flour Mills Chairman, Christine Sahadeo. She is tipped to become Minister in the Ministry of Finance, with Cabinet status. It is understood that Ken Valley is to lose the portfolio of Finance and to serve solely as Minister of Trade. Valley is currently out of the country on government business. Sahadeo will be the first woman to hold a portfolio in Finance.

The Prime Minister’s announcement fuelled  speculation about a Cabinet and parliamentary reshuffle. If Sahadeo is to be added to the PNM’s team, she has to come via the Senate. And the question which was being asked yesterday was: who is going to be dropped from the Senate team. Pundit Manideo Persad is the only backbencher in the Senate. Everyone else is either a minister or a parliamentary secretary. Sahadeo is General Manager of Melville Shipping Limited, which is part of the Neal and Massy Group of Companies. An accountant in her early forties, she has worked in the shipping industry for much of her working life.  It is understood that Sahadeo recently travelled to London and Rotterdam where she introduced her successor to business associates overseas. With the appointment of  Angela Hamel-Smith to the Petrotrin Board, there are now two high ranking Neal and Massy executives in the hierarchy of the Government.

The Prime Minister has already faced criticisms about the size of his Cabinet, which opponents label as too large, consisting of 26 members. Sources also said that Imtiaz Hosein, who is chairman of the South West Regional Health Authority is to become Mayor of San Fernando. Current mayor Gerald Ferriera has already announced that he would not be returning. Manning, speaking at the opening of the 4th Area Conference which was being held by the Trinidad and Tobago Federation of Women’s Institutes at the Ambassador Hotel, boasted that the Cabinet of Trinidad and Tobago had a large complement of women. “And another one is to be added to it not long from now,” he said.

Manning stated that these women (in the Cabinet) were “just as formidable and sometimes even more so than their male counterparts. And believe me, ladies and gentlemen, I know that of which I speak,” he said. He added, “To be sure there is some distance to go, but Trinidad and Tobago is well on the way,” he stated. Earlier, Chairman of the Network of Women, Hazel Browne, said that in the formulation of policy for Vision 20/20, which she labelled ‘Blindness 20/20’, the input of women had to be considered. “And, Mr Prime Minister we don’t want any gender sub-comittee. We are not a ‘sub’ of anything. Women are to be incorporated into all the 29 sub-committees,” she said. There are already six women ministers in Manning’s Cabinet: Education Minister, his wife, Hazel, the Attorney General, the Ministers of Legal Affairs, Social Development, Community Development and Gender Affairs and a Minister in the PM’s Office.