By Lynford Simpson, Staff Reporter
MINISTER OF Information, Senator Maxine Henry-Wilson, will be paid as a party worker as of the middle of next month when she gives up her ministerial and senatorial duties to concentrate on being General Secretary of the People's National Party (PNP) in the upcoming election campaign.
Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Paul Robertson, who like Mrs. Henry-Wilson has relinquished his Ministerial post to direct the PNP's election campaign, will now only receive his salary as Member of Parliament for South East St. Catherine.
"Regarding that matter Senator (Mrs Henry-Wilson) will be paid by the party," PNP Chairman Robert Pickersgill said yesterday but did not indicate how much she'd be paid. "I'm not authorised to discuss that with you," he responded when asked. He confirmed that Dr. Robertson would now receive only his salary as an MP.
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson at Sunday's closing session of the PNP's annual conference disclosed that the two senior Cabinet Ministers had agreed to give up their ministerial duties to concentrate on ensuring a fourth term for the governing party which has for sometime been trailing the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party in public opinion polls.
They will continue to carry out their current duties until mid-October when their replacements will be announced, Mr. Patterson said. He will be forced to make three changes to his Cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister Seymour Mullings is scheduled to take up his appointment as Jamaica's Ambassador to Washington before the end of the year.
Mrs. Henry-Wilson has been General Secretary since 1994 while Dr. Robertson served as campaign director for the 1997 general election.
Mrs. Henry-Wilson was formally presented on Sunday as the party's candidate for South East St. Andrew, a seat now held by the PNP's Easton Douglas who has announced that he is quitting representational politics.