Prime Minister Mia Mottley robustly defended her new 23-member Cabinet, insisting its size is a deliberate design to boost government delivery, accountability, and performance.
Speaking at Monday’s swearing-in ceremony at CARIFESTA House, Waterford, where ministers and senators took their oaths of office before President Jeffrey Bostic, a former cabinet minister, Mottley dismissed concerns over the line-up’s scale.
In total, there are 26 appointments, including three ministers of state.
“The Cabinet that is being sworn in today is not just a list of names,” she said. “It is a structure that has been deliberately balanced, carefully chosen and repurposed to face the current realities of our moment today with strategic focus.”
Anticipating public debate, Mottley said the configuration was intentional, directly tied to execution and accountability.
She argued that elevating portfolios such as the public service, investment, and economic affairs reflected the administration’s assessment of where delivery must improve.
“If you ask me why we have a dedicated minister responsible for the public service and for people’s talent, it is because the public service is our delivery engine, and Barbados’s next phase as a country will fail or succeed on the quality of our delivery,” Mottley said. “We have to become more efficient. We have to become more responsive. We have to become more laser-like in how we serve our people.”
Mottley also defended a dedicated investment portfolio, linking it to economic resilience and opportunity.
“If you ask me why we have a dedicated minister for investment, public and private, it is because our tax base, while our tax collection is doing well, our tax base remains tenuous, and our progress depends on our ability to continue to drive investment, local and foreign investment,” she said.
She said the Cabinet’s structure was shaped by the need to push beyond stabilisation towards competitiveness.
“If you ask me why economic affairs must have a dedicated focus and structure to improve our national competitiveness, it is because stabilising the economy was not our destination,” she said. “Yes, we have stabilised and we’re proud of it and we’re proud of the fact that we have 18 straight quarters of growth, but the work, my friends, continues.”
Santia Bradshaw remains Deputy Prime Minister, appointed Minister of Environment, National Beautification and Fisheries, and Leader of Government Business in the House of Assembly. Senator Jerome Walcott becomes Senior Minister coordinating Social and Environmental Policy with responsibility for social sector reform.
Kerrie Symmonds is appointed Minister of Energy, Business Development and Commerce and Senior Minister coordinating the productive sector, while Kirk Humphrey returns to Transport and Works with responsibility for infrastructure. Senator Christopher Sinckler is appointed Senior Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.
Ryan Straughn retains the finance portfolio, Kay McConney assumes responsibility for the Public Service and Talent Development, and Senator Lisa Cummins is appointed Minister of Health and Wellness and Leader of Government Business in the Senate.
Indar Weir is assigned the Public and Private Investment portfolio, Adrian Forde moves to People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, and Gregory Nicholls enters Cabinet as Minister of Home Affairs and Information. Michael Lashley is appointed Minister of Legal Affairs and Criminal Justice.
Several ministers retain their portfolios, including Ian Gooding-Edghill at Tourism and International Transport; Chris Gibbs at Housing, Lands and Maintenance; Chad Blackman at Education Transformation; Sandra Husbands at Technological and Vocational Training; and Charles Griffith at Sports and Community Empowerment. Davidson Ishmael and Dr Rommel Springer remain respective Ministers of State in Health and Wellness and Transport and Works.
Dr Shantal Munro-Knight is Minister of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Security; Jonathan Reid retains Innovation, Industry, Science and Technology; Marsha Caddle returns to Cabinet in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Economic Affairs and Planning; and Trevor Prescod continues in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Pan-African Affairs and Heritage.
New Senator Shane Archer is appointed Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office with day-to-day responsibility for Youth and Culture.
Eight elected Barbados Labour Party MPs did not receive executive appointments and will sit on the government backbenches: Peter R. Phillips, Dr Sonia Browne, Tyra Trotman, Dr William Duguid, Neil Rowe, Ryan Brathwaite, Dwight Suthrland and Toni Moore.
As part of the administration’s agenda, there is to be a National Competitiveness Commission, Mottley announced.
“We will in this term announce a national competitiveness commission to help us measure what is slowing us down, to fix what is holding us back and to fix and unlock what is possible when we become more productive as a country,” she said. “This is not intended to be an academic commission and it will address the issues sectorally both in the large sectors that people expect like tourism and in the very critical sectors of vending and hawking.”
Turning to public frustration with government services, Mottley said citizens judge the state not by policy documents but by lived experience.
“One of the biggest frustrations is often not policy in the governance of this country. It is about the pace of execution. People do not live on spreadsheets nor in documents. People live on whether the bus is coming on time or not, whether they can get through our roads safely or not, whether the lights stay on, whether their water is running and clear and not brown.”
She said improving government speed would be a central mission of the new term.
While noting progress in some areas, Mottley said key bottlenecks remain.
“I do not rest on the fact that I feel good that we were able to introduce certificates of character that can now be available within a matter of hours, because that’s past. I want now for us to conquer the obstacles like the licensing authority and other things that we have not yet managed to bring into proper balance,” she said.
Mottley said the Cabinet was deliberately structured to elevate the public service and people development, stressing that reform cannot be driven by politicians alone.
“It is not simply the political class that will make the difference. It is the entire public service and state-owned enterprises,” she said. “Barbados needs a world-class public service. But Barbadians need to give world-class service to each and every Bajan and everybody visiting this nation.”
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