PM still tight-lipped on Ruel Reid’s resignation

Edmond Campbell, Senior Parliamentary Reporter

Prime Minister Andrew Holness drew on the sub judice rule on Tuesday and gave very little detail when asked to tell the country, for the first time, why he accepted former discarded education minister Ruel Reid’s resignation in March 2019.

“I am going to respect the longstanding protocol as it relates to respecting matters that are before courts. This House respects the co-equal arm of government, so I do not wish to go any further down that road,” Holness told Fitz Jackson, who pressed him on the matter.

READ: Why Ruel Reid was asked to resign

“I am not asking the prime minister for the details ... I simply ask: ‘Did you seek from him an account of what transpired at the ministry and the CMU that caused him to give you his resignation’,” Jackson queried.

According to Holness, he had a discussion with Reid and accepted his resignation, after which he took charge of the portfolio and asked Karl Samuda to provide direct oversight.

READ: Karl Samuda assigned to Education Ministry

Holness said both he and Samuda went to the ministry to conduct a review “seeing that we don’t have the powers to investigate but to fulfil our ministerial duties. We went there, we asked questions, we looked at files and asked the permanent secretary to give me a full report on what was happening at the ministry so that I could determine whether or not there was any widespread breakdown in administration at the ministry.”

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