The re­align­ment of min­is­te­r­i­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ties an­nounced by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar over the week­end sig­nals more than an ad­min­is­tra­tive ad­just­ment. It marks a re­cal­i­bra­tion of the Gov­ern­ment’s fo­cus ahead of the 2026 na­tion­al Bud­get. While such re­align­ments are not un­usu­al dur­ing an ad­min­is­tra­tion’s term, the scale and tim­ing of these changes point to a de­lib­er­ate at­tempt to con­sol­i­date con­trol. They al­so aim to cor­rect in­ef­fi­cien­cies and re­de­fine na­tion­al pri­or­i­ties.

The changes af­fect 18 of the Cab­i­net’s 25 min­is­ters, who have seen their port­fo­lios al­tered—some ex­pand­ed, oth­ers re­duced—in what ap­pears to be a strate­gic re­bal­anc­ing ex­er­cise.

The re­clas­si­fi­ca­tion of en­tire min­istries stands out as one of the most sig­nif­i­cant shifts. No­tably, Agri­cul­ture, Lands and Fish­eries has been split in­to Agri­cul­ture and Fish­eries and Le­gal Af­fairs and Lands. By mov­ing land man­age­ment to Le­gal Af­fairs un­der Min­is­ter Sad­dam Ho­sein, the Prime Min­is­ter cre­ates a new cen­tre of grav­i­ty. This new cen­tre fo­cus­es on one of the coun­try’s most po­lit­i­cal­ly sen­si­tive and eco­nom­i­cal­ly vi­tal ar­eas.

At first glance, these ad­just­ments seem aimed at im­prov­ing co­or­di­na­tion. Hous­ing, le­gal, and agri­cul­tur­al mat­ters have long over­lapped. This over­lap has caused bot­tle­necks and blurred ac­count­abil­i­ty. If the goal is to align land man­age­ment, tenure reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion, and val­u­a­tion un­der one roof, it could lead to clear­er pol­i­cy. But such struc­tur­al change of­ten brings short-term con­fu­sion, es­pe­cial­ly with­in the pub­lic ser­vice. Man­dates and re­port­ing lines will now shift abrupt­ly.

The Prime Min­is­ter’s de­ci­sion to per­son­al­ly as­sume con­trol of pub­lic as­sis­tance pro­grammes and as­pects of con­sti­tu­tion­al re­form is equal­ly note­wor­thy. It places her di­rect­ly at the cen­tre of key peo­ple-fo­cused ini­tia­tives just be­fore the na­tion­al Bud­get and in the run-up to lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions. This con­cen­tra­tion of re­spon­si­bil­i­ty may strength­en co­or­di­na­tion at the top, but it al­so rais­es con­cerns about ex­ces­sive cen­tral­i­sa­tion with­in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter.

Some ad­just­ments re­flect ef­forts to strength­en over­sight where per­for­mance has lagged. Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der now over­sees the prison sys­tem—a move re­flect­ing con­cern about se­cu­ri­ty laps­es and re­cidi­vism. His stat­ed in­ten­tion to “en­sure ab­solute con­trol of pris­ons” through tech­nol­o­gy and new strate­gies sig­nals a tougher stance. Yet, this fo­cus on con­trol must be bal­anced with at­ten­tion to re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and hu­man rights—ar­eas where the pe­nal sys­tem re­mains weak.

In the en­er­gy and util­i­ties sec­tors, the re­dis­tri­b­u­tion of re­spon­si­bil­i­ties ap­pears aimed at restor­ing co­her­ence. Pow­er gen­er­a­tion en­ti­ties such as TGU and Pow­er­Gen have been re­turned to Pub­lic Util­i­ties, where they log­i­cal­ly be­long, while En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal can now fo­cus on the sec­tor’s in­vest­ment and re­gion­al part­ner­ships. That fo­cus is crit­i­cal, as T&T faces de­clin­ing pro­duc­tion and glob­al com­pe­ti­tion.

Eco­nom­ic co­or­di­na­tion al­so seems to be a theme. Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo’s as­sump­tion of mat­ters re­lat­ing to the Na­tion­al Health In­sur­ance sys­tem and Ex­im­Bank sug­gests an ef­fort to link fi­nan­cial man­age­ment with so­cial pro­tec­tion and trade fa­cil­i­ta­tion. The suc­cess of this align­ment will de­pend on tighter in­ter-min­is­te­r­i­al co­op­er­a­tion than gov­ern­ments have his­tor­i­cal­ly man­aged.

Ul­ti­mate­ly, Cab­i­net ad­just­ments are judged not by their bold­ness but by their re­sults. The Prime Min­is­ter’s lat­est re­align­ment could stream­line op­er­a­tions and sharp­en fo­cus—or it could sow con­fu­sion and over­bur­den key min­is­ters.

As the na­tion awaits the 2026 Bud­get, the Gov­ern­ment must show that these changes are not cos­met­ic or po­lit­i­cal­ly timed but part of a gen­uine ef­fort to im­prove gov­er­nance, ac­count­abil­i­ty, and ser­vice de­liv­ery.

T&T de­serves noth­ing less.