Newsgathering Editor
kejan.haynes@guardian.co.tt
Prime Minister Stuart Young’s proposal for a new Ministry of Efficiency and Implementation has sparked mixed reactions from political analysts, with questions being asked about its novelty and necessity.
The proposed ministry would operate out of the Office of the Prime Minister and aims to reduce government bureaucracy. But two analysts said the concept closely resembles existing models—namely, the United States’ Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the People’s Partnership’s former Monitoring and Evaluation Unit, which tracked the progress of state projects.
Political scientist Dr Hamid Ghany said while the idea appears sound on the surface, it is hardly novel.
“Under the People’s Partnership government, there was a Monitoring and Evaluation Unit within the Ministry of Planning and Development, and they used to generate annual reports to Parliament,” Ghany said. “So I think they may have had a report in 2012, 2013, [and] 2014. The unit, I do not think, was continued when the PNM came to power.
“I see this as a revival of something that had been done before. The spirit in which it has been revived, and the context in which it has been revived ... a number of people have gone into a discourse about trying to liken it to the DOGE initiative of the Trump administration, and people asking questions about who’s going to be the equivalent of Elon Musk. That is going into the narratives that have emerged out of it.
“On the surface, it is a good idea. As regards the actual operation of it, it is a revival of something that the People’s Partnership had before,” he added.
Political analyst Shane Mohammed agrees, calling the initiative a rehash of a previous United National Congress policy. But he questions the necessity of a new ministry, asking what it could accomplish that the Government could not have done already.
“I also think it’s a Trinidadian version of the United States DOGE, which is also the Department of Government Efficiency,” Mohammed said. “And I think there is where you find that Mr Young is trying to align himself with some similarities that would give him a platform to be seen and heard by the American government.
“However, my question is this. Mr Young is not new to the political system. He’s not new to governance. And having had the confidence of the prime minister—former—for so many years, what prevented the government from exercising its duty and responsibility in government efficiencies and in implementing proper strategies and processes that would build public trust and confidence in how we do government business and how government does business with the people?,” Mohammed said.
“So there is where my big question mark is: what prevented the minister—and now prime minister—from getting this done?”
Mohammed also pointed to a past PNM decision to scrap the People’s Partnership’s “From Red Tape to Red Carpet” policy, which aimed to simplify doing business with the State.”
He added, “They scrapped that. So how could they have taken good working policies, good working frameworks, scrapped it and left us going backwards? He now wants to take us forward with the Ministry of Implementation and Efficiency. I think this is just another plaster on a gaping wound.”
Meanwhile, during his presentation of three candidates yesterday in Bamboo #1, Valsayn, leader of the Progressive Empowerment Party (PEP) Phillip Alexander criticised Young’s intention to create a new ministry to address public bureaucracy.
“He trying to copy Elon Musk. He going and create a department of efficiency. Hear is how he describes his department of efficiency. He wil bully the people in his office, who will bully the people below them so he could get what he want. Stuart Young creating a ministry of bullying.”
He called on the media to raise the point as it is not a small issue and called on others who may have been bullied by Young to come forward.