Morris Dixon new information minister, Morgan reassigned to works

Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon is the new information minister in the Holness administration, a key move as the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) seeks to refine its communications machinery for national elections due next year. 

She retains portfolio responsibilities for skills and digital transformation, the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) announced on Monday evening. 

Morris Dixon replaces Robert Morgan who has been put in charge of works in the Ministry of the Economic Growth and Job Creation. 

The works portfolio was overseen by Everald Warmington who resigned from Cabinet in February in the wake of his comments that he would starve an elected People's National Party councillor of public funds.

And Senator Abka Fitz-Henley has been named a parliamentary secretary in the OPM. 

A parliamentary secretary is a member of the government party named to assist a senior minister.

As of April 1, 2024, the annual salary for a parliamentary secretary is $17.2 million.

A minister's salary is $22.9 million yearly.

The OPM statement said the changes will become effective on May 21. 

"The adjustments will assist the administration [to] more efficiently and effectively deliver its policies and programmes for the Jamaican people," it added.

The change completes Morgan's removal from the centre of the information and communication architecture of the Government and the ruling JLP, a machinery he was credited with building out post the 2016 election win. 

However, over the last two years he faced intense internal pressures over the administration's struggles to communicate its messages with the electorate. 

He resigned as chairman of the JLP's public relations committee in April, almost two months after the party's underwhelming performance in February's local government election. 

Morris Dixon has emerged as a likeable member of the political executive, just under a year after stepping into national politics with her Cabinet assignment.

She and Fitz-Henley, a former broadcast journalist at Nationwide News Network, were appointed to the Senate in May 2023.

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