PP cabinet meets in Tobago

The weekly cabinet meeting is taking place Thursday at the Coco Coco reef resort in Tobago where Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and members of her Cabinet will also hold a two-day retreat to examine their performance in the first year in office and develop plans to improve on their performance.

The government team will be in Tobago until Sunday.

They will attend a rally on Saturday evening at the old market square in Scarborough to celebrate the first year in government.

There is speculation that Persad-Bissessar will announce some cabinet changes following the cabinet meeting. Last month she told reporters she would make some realignments to portfolios.

Some sources close to government have said she is likely to separate the transportation portfolio from works, leaving Jack Warner with the responsibility for works alone. The sources say she is also likely to make some changes to the Senate lineup, which could affect some ministerial portfolios.

In the first year the Prime Minister did not make any major shifts in her cabinet. One minister - Mary King - was fired and some minor shifts were made.

Rudy Indarsingh was moved from Warner's ministry and replaced by Stacy Roopnarine. Indarsingh was put in the labour ministry with responsibility for the Unemployment Relief Program (URP).

This is the second time the cabinet is holding a retreat at the same location. Experts were invited to lecture them last September. However, that is not happening this time.

"Through experiences over the past year we would have seen areas in which we need to do better, we could see areas we need to explore further so I think this workshop will allow us to develop a greater team building effort in addition for strategic planning for the way forward," Persad-Bissessar said on Monday.