Gail Alexan­der

The PP Cab­i­net holds its planned re­ori­en­ta­tion sem­i­nar in To­ba­go over four days from next Wednes­day, press sec­re­tary Garvin Nicholas said Wednes­day.

The re­treat is be­ing held to re­ori­ent the 27-mem­ber Cab­i­net team af­ter two months in of­fice. PP House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives leader Roodal Mooni­lal con­firmed the ses­sion three weeks ago af­ter In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tor He­len Dray­ton who cri­tiqued the Gov­ern­ment per­for­mance in sev­er­al ar­eas, rec­om­mend­ed such a process.

Nicholas told the Guardian that the sem­i­nar will guide the Gov­ern­ment on is­sues per­tain­ing to gov­er­nance and com­mu­ni­ca­tion and oth­er mat­ters in­clud­ing strate­gic plan­ning. He said the Cab­i­net sets off for To­ba­go next Wednes­day af­ter­noon. Gov­ern­ment's week­ly Cab­i­net meet­ing and sub­se­quent news brief­ing fol­low on Thurs­day at the Co­co Reef ho­tel. Re­treat busi­ness be­gins Fri­day at the same venue.

That ses­sion con­tin­ues all Sat­ur­day and con­cludes at noon Sun­day when the Cab­i­net re­turns to Trinidad. The re­treat takes place while the Par­lia­ment takes its an­nu­al Au­gust "sum­mer" re­cess, con­clud­ing by Au­gust 31, PP of­fi­cials con­firmed. Next week's re­treat will see the first vis­it to the sis­ter isle by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the new ad­min­is­tra­tion since the May 24 gen­er­al elec­tion.

Yes­ter­day, TOP leader Ash­worth Jack whose par­ty is part of the coali­tion PP, said plans were be­ing worked out for a To­ba­go wel­come pro­gramme for the new Cab­i­net. "We will be host­ing a re­cep­tion etc. De­tails are be­ing worked out."