BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FORMER Member of Parliament (MP) Cedric Roy Liburd has ‘hit the ground running’ and is adjusting to the advisory position he assumed since early February.
Liburd contested the recently-held General Elections as St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party’s candidate for Constituency Number Eight Seat is defeat to People’s Action Movement’s (PAM) representative Eugene Hamilton has not weakened his zeal to serve the people of the nation but rather, it seems to have whet his appetite to provide assistance wherever necessary.
The Swearing-in Ceremony, which was held on February 2, revealed that the former Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Housing and Cooperatives would be Advisor to Minister of Tourism and International Transport (the St. Kitts Air and Sea Port Authority), Richard ‘Ricky’ Skerritt.
“My duties are really to advise the Minister. The Minister is expected at any time to call on me to provide work for me to advice him on any document, advise him on any area and at least, as I said, any duties he wants to assign to me as the Advisor. Mainly, (I am) to advise him on various areas. I am hoping that the two of us would be able to work together in making sure that we are able to carry out our duties during this period,” Liburd expressed in an exclusive interview with SKNVibes.
Speaking to his qualification to serve in this capacity, Liburd explained that he not only had an advisor at his disposal during his first term in office (1995-2000) but functioned as the Minister with responsibility for Air and Sea Ports during that period.
“I have been a minister before. In my first term, I had an advisor in the person of Mr. Clecton Phillip who worked with me in that ministry and he was my advisor at the time. I have never been an advisor. I have been a consultant before I came to government (as a) minister of government, in terms of the insurance field.
“When you think about international transport (that is) Port Authority, one should recall that Cedric Liburd is the one who was responsible then for the airport, at least during that five years, and was the one who constructed or reorganised the airport itself. And I am hoping that I would be able to lend my experience to the Minister and the Ministry during this period.”
Having served in a ministerial capacity for an approximate 15 years, Liburd said there is some difficulty transitioning from that role to an advisor. He however expressed confidence in his ability to adapt to the new role.
“From the very first in 1995 when I took responsibility to be the Parliamentary Representative and was given the opportunity to be a minister, I knew that the job you can work for a period of years and the decision of the people is what determines whether or not I would continue. I always prepared my mind for that kind of transition. So it is not as difficult as some people feel, because I recognise at the polls I lost the elections and therefore I have to condition myself for the next life for Cedric Liburd. However, yes it has taken a little while for me to understand the changes and I am working with it. I am now preparing myself to make sure that I am able to respond to a minister instead of someone responding to me as a minister.”
The Tourism and International Travel Advisor said he has already been tasked by the Minister and is in the process of reviewing a number of documents concerning specific Air and Sea Port-related issues. Following this process, Liburd explained, he would advise the Minister on “the way forward”.
“That is the first area that I am dealing with. The Minister has agreed that we will have meetings with the various management of the Air and Sea Port Authority. We have scheduled a meeting for that where we will be bringing all of the heads of departments together to discuss and to hear their concerns to see how we can put them into a plan of action, in terms of resolving these concerns and problems…The Air and Sea Port Authority does have quite a bit of work in terms of projects and I hope I would be able to lend my experience in that area, making sure that those projects are completed.
“The other area is the visit the various departments – of the Air and Sea Port Authority. So those are the things that we are doing right now to get our feet into the system and get into the grounds to see what is happening, and from there we are hoping to work together.”
