7 . (Mrs. Petal Daniel-Benoit) ask the Chief Secretary and Secretary of Finance, Trade and the Economy:

As it relates to the establishment of the Office of the Deputy Chief Secretary, will the Chief Secretary please indicate the following:

(a) What are the approved positions of the establishment of this new stand-alone Office of the Deputy Chief Secretary?

(b) What are the positions filled thus far, the names of the individuals, their qualifications, the remuneration and status of employment (short term, contract, permanent and daily paid).

(c) What is the recruitment process used to engage each officer?

Chief Secretary.

 Thank you very much, Madam Presiding Officer.

          The office of the Deputy Chief Secretary is not new. There has always been an office of the Deputy Chief Secretary as per the law, that says that an Executive Council consists of the Chief Secretary, (one office) the Deputy Chief Secretary, (two offices) and not more than seven (7) others. So it is not new at all.

        What is new is that it is a stand alone Division and Management Services Unit (MSU) - they sat down and worked out the organizational structure for this stand alone Division of the Deputy Chief Secretary and in addition, to the usual accounting officers that will be placed in that Division the Management Services Unit (MSU) recommended and the Executive Council approved the following six (6) positions:

1.  A Director of Legal Services.

2.  A Director for Diaspora Relations.

3.  A Director for Foreign Direct Investments.

4.  A Director for Monitoring and Evaluation

5. A Director for Energy and Sustainable Resources; and

6.  A Business Operations Coordinator.

      To date, Madam Presiding Officer, none of these positions have been filled. To date, what we are working on right now, is aligning the other Divisions which will see the workers related specifically with youth and sport join their colleagues in Community Development and the public servants that were there under the stand alone Division of Youth and Sport will then be joined by Deputy Chief Secretary Duke and his team - the six (6) officers as I stated. When that office space arrangement is worked out, then Deputy Chief Secretary Duke will be allowed to hire his staff accordingly.