Ger­ard Best

.

He was al­so the 20th per­son to leave of­fice un­der con­tro­ver­sial cir­cum­stances since 2010.

morn­ing was an­nounced by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, left of­fice un­der a cloud of spec­u­la­tion re­gard­ing his role in the now de­funct Life Sport Pro­gramme which was run by his min­istry.

Though Roberts stat­ed that his res­ig­na­tion in­clud­ed his seat in?Par­lia­ment, there would not be a by-elec­tion as the res­ig­na­tion has come in the last ses­sion of the Par­lia­ment.

An au­dit in­to the pro­gramme un­earthed fraud, theft, fi­nan­cial dis­crep­an­cies and cor­rupt prac­tices.

Of the 20 peo­ple thrust out of the Gov­ern­ment, Roberts was the fifth res­ig­na­tion.

He was pre­ceed­ed by for­mer Tourism Min­is­ter Chan­dresh Shar­ma, for­mer Sen­a­tor Ter­rence Baynes, for­mer Vice Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate Lyn­di­ra Ou­dit and for­mer Works Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er.

In ad­di­tion, four Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ters were fired by Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

In 2011, for­mer Min­is­ter of Plan­ning Mary King was fired amid al­le­ga­tions of a con­flict of in­ter­est in the award­ing of a con­tract at her min­istry.

Collin Par­tap, a min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty was fired af­ter fail­ing to take a breathal­yser test near a pop­u­lar night­club.

For­mer Jus­tice Min­is­ter Her­bert Vol­ney was fired af­ter it was al­leged that he mis­lead the Par­lia­ment in the Sec­tion 34 fi­as­co, and for­mer Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple Glenn Ra­mad­hars­ingh was fired af­ter in­ap­pro­pri­ate con­duct on a Caribbean Air­lines flight from?To­ba­go to Trinidad.

A to­tal of eleven oth­er min­is­ters lost their port­fo­lio as the re­sult of cab­i­net reshuf­fles.