Govt mulls reducing size of Cabinet
Premier Craig Cannonier plans to reduce the size of Cabinet in accordance with recommendations from the UK’s National School of Government.But the Premier is not saying what those recommendations — made in 2011 to the former Progressive Labour Party Government — are.“I believe that that’s almost a fait accompli. After we had sat down with the School of Government, and have been able to take a look at what they had recommended.“I believe there’s room for cutting down on the number of Ministers that we do have,” he said when asked when he would be reducing the Cabinet.“I won’t be announcing that anytime soon right now but we still are looking at how we can cut back and I’m sure that that will happen.”Mr Cannonier would not say what his preferred Cabinet size would be, or what had been recommended in the 2011 civil service review. But, he said, an active dialogue was underway.“Those recommendations were not followed up on. And so we aim to follow up on that to be more efficient.”Following his appointment of a 13 member Cabinet in December, Mr Cannonier told this newspaper that he wanted to reduce it to a nine or ten member Cabinet.“They (Cabinet Ministers) do know that things could change in a few months time. But right now, it’s all hands on deck,” he said then.But he added that the plan was to shrink the cabinet in a year or so. “I would have liked to have even at this time gotten it down to nine or ten.”The One Bermuda Alliance promised to reduce the size of Cabinet in the lead up to last year’s general election.