IS BYRAN WOODSIDE STILL A MINISTER?

Hon. Byron Woodside flashing victory sign leaving the election courtroom. (File photo)

Nassau, Bahamas – Out of concern for Byran Woodside’s pride and decency being trampled on, taxpayers money being wasted and workers at the once Ministry of Lands being stabbed in the back by “The Trust Agenda,” Bahamas Press is sending out this question: is Byran Woodside still a minister?

The recent Cabinet shuffle saw some peculiar changes. One of those peculiarities was State Minister in Education, Youth, Sports & Culture, Byran Woodside, being transferred to what was once The Ministry of Lands. That ministry for all intents and purposes is now reposed in The Office of the Prime Minister and is now in effect a Department.

That Department is now manned by a minister, undersecretary and eleven persons. This is an aberration of protocol concerning ministers and a Department within a ministry. Bahamas Press has no idea why the prime minister would seek to denigrate his State Minister, Byran Woodside, who is known to be a gentlemen and loyal to any cause he undertakes. Unfortunately, he has no ministerial cause at his present position because it is known that being transferred to Ingraham’s office is, as is said by technocrats in The Office of The Prime Minister, “like being sent to the dog house for an indefinite term of punishment, or being thrown into a dark deep dungeon!”

This indefinite term of punishment meted out to Byran Woodside, is also a waste of taxpayers money because what can Woodside be doing at The Office of the Prime Minister that the scores of consultants and permanent secretaries cannot do in the running of a Department? In more tangible terms, a minister is paid a minister’s salary and a department head is paid accordingly. It is structured like that because the duties are different. But if a prime minister is just trying to keep someone employed, then Bahamas Press assumes that anything makes sense. Bahamas Press would have rather seen the prime minister do “an honorable thing” and fire Byran Woodside and find him some work in the private sector!

Obviously, Byran Woodside has no power in the Department now known as Lands because if he did Bahamas Press doubts very seriously that he would have done what has happened today. Bahamas Press was informed that a good number of people were transferred out of the defunct Ministry of Lands and told to go to Public Personnel to receive letters as to their new job site. But upon reaching Public Personnel, the displaced employees were told, “We have not been given any instructions as yet, so take a week off and then come back.”

“The Trust Agenda” strikes again!!! And the system of Westminster Government continues to be mongrelized!!!