CAB Sec: P.M. will choose new Cabinet
With a majority of the cabinet now relegated to life on the backbench the obvious question arises of what happens next. In a phone call late this afternoon Press Secretary Ernesto Vasquez, released the following recording made by Cabinet Secretary Robert Leslie.
Robert Leslie, Cabinet Secretary
?Today, August sixteenth 2004, the Prime Minister received the resignations of seven members of the Cabinet. These resignations will not affect the proper functioning of the Government as the Prime Minister retains oversight responsibility of the ministries involved. I have already informed the chief executive officers in my capacity as Cabinet Secretary, that they are directly responsible to the Prime Minister and to no one else for management of their ministries. The Ministers, who submitted their resignations, broke with cabinet protocols by making their disagreements public and by making public demands on the Prime Minister. The proper procedure would have been to resign first. By submitting their resignations in writing, they have now acted appropriately and in the best interest of the nation. This will allow the Prime Minister, the opportunity to advise his excellence to the Governor General to appoint a new Cabinet. I expect that the Prime Minister will announce the names of the new Cabinet at an appropriate time.?
To choose a new cabinet the P.M. has only two pools of talent: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Assuming that all the remaining cabinet members will stay on, Prime Minister Musa will look to representatives Florencio Marin, Max Samuels, Ainslie Leslie, Mike Espat, Valdemar Castillo, Rodwell Ferguson, Dave Burgos, Ismael Cal and Mario Castellanos to take up the remaining portfolios. Failing that, he could turn to P.U.P. senators Dickie Bradley, Therese Rath or Barry Bowen, or even Independent Senator Godwin Hulse. If he?s still not satisfied, there is the final alternative of replacing some existing senators with well qualified executives and then putting them in cabinet.
