Prime Minister defends working from home

PRIME Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said she will be working out of various locations throughout the country which have been outfitted for use by the cabinet.

Speaking to media at the government’s first post-cabinet media briefing, held at the Red House on May 8, Persad-Bissessar, who had a chesty cough, said she was grateful to those who expressed concern about having office space to carry out her responsibilities.

“I want to assure you, I will be working out of facilities in Port of Spain. I will be working out of facilities in central Trinidad, because the last time we were in government, we established a cabinet room in central. It was then the ministry of tertiary education, it is now the ministry of agriculture.

“I will be working out of south Trinidad because we had also established a cabinet room there upstairs of the teaching hospital. I’ve asked the health minister to find out the condition of that. I will be operating out of Tobago, I’m told there’s a beautiful facility in the island of Tobago.”

Persad-Bissessar said she would also definitely be working out of her home.

“I do not receive a housing allowance, so I do not need to pay myself to use my own home. Rest your brain on that, because some people feel I getting money to use my own home. No.

“We will use the facilities, and any one that is more convenient or necessary at that point in time, we will choose that one. The country does not begin and end at the lighthouse. There are other parts of the country we need to serve and when we meet there, we can meet people there.”

The Prime Minister said between 2020 and 2025, the cabinet secretary said there had been 298 virtual cabinet meetings, amounting to over five years of cabinet meetings.

“There is precedent. What’s wrong with virtual? Of course we will have in-person meetings where and when necessary.”

The covid19 pandemic began in 2020. Persad-Bissessar said the most recent meeting had been held in 2025. She did not specify if virtual meant that all participants were present online or if the meeting was a hybrid one.

Asked whether the government would implement the work-from-home policy for public servants which was being drafted under the previous administration, she reminded it had not been implemented. Asked whether she would consider continuing working on implementation, she said it might be something to be considered.