Joel Samp­son has been sworn in as the new Sec­re­tary of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment and Sport, re­plac­ing Pas­tor Ter­ance Baynes, who was de­mot­ed in a To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) reshuf­fle on Mon­day. 

In a brief cer­e­mo­ny at Pres­i­dent’s House around 2 pm yes­ter­day, Samp­son re­ceived his in­stru­ment of ap­point­ment from Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo. He was ac­com­pa­nied by Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine. 

In the reshuf­fle, an­nounced by the Of­fice of the Chief Sec­re­tary on Mon­day, Au­gus­tine re­lin­quished his port­fo­lio as Sec­re­tary of Fi­nance, de­mot­ed Baynes, and in­tro­duced five new as­sis­tant sec­re­taries. 

Son­ny Craig was ap­point­ed as­sis­tant sec­re­tary in the Of­fice of the Chief Sec­re­tary; Megan Mor­ri­son was ap­point­ed as­sis­tant sec­re­tary in the Di­vi­sion of Health, Well­ness and So­cial Pro­tec­tion; Niall George is now as­sis­tant sec­re­tary in the Di­vi­sion of Tourism, Cul­ture, An­tiq­ui­ties and Trans­porta­tion; Cer­ti­ca Williams Orr was as­signed as­sis­tant sec­re­tary in the Di­vi­sion of Fi­nance, Trade and the Econ­o­my; and as­sis­tant sec­re­tary Or­lan­do Kerr was trans­ferred to the Di­vi­sion of Set­tle­ments, Pub­lic Util­i­ties and Rur­al De­vel­op­ment.  

The new Sec­re­tary of Fi­nance is ex­pect­ed to be ap­point­ed by Ju­ly 1. 

Baynes, who was re­as­signed as as­sis­tant sec­re­tary in the Di­vi­sion of In­fra­struc­ture, is ex­pect­ed to be giv­en his in­stru­ment of ap­point­ment as Deputy Pre­sid­ing Of­fi­cer to­mor­row. 

The reshuf­fle has been the sub­ject of much dis­cus­sion on the sis­ter is­land, with PNM To­ba­go Coun­cil Leader An­cil Den­nis stat­ing that the new as­sign­ments would make lit­tle to no dif­fer­ence in the ad­min­is­tra­tion of the THA.