Former financial secretary Dr Wesley Hughes has assumed the post as chief executive officer (CEO) of the PetroCaribe Fund which operates under the aegis of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, The Gleaner has learnt.

Hughes, who formally left the public sector late last year, last served as financial secretary in the Ministry of Finance and is already in place as CEO.

Gleaner sources say that Hughes will meet with representatives of the Ministry of Finance today which may include Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips. Hughes, an economist, has served in several different capacities in the public sector since 1977 when he started his career at what was then the National Planning Agency. He served at the Jamaica Bauxite Institute, as a deputy governor at the Bank of Jamaica, in addition to being the Government's chief economic adviser.

In the last two decades, Hughes has seen three changes of administration and a departure from and return to the IMF.

Now he will oversee the PetroCaribe programme - an agreement between Venezuela and some Caribbean territories to purchase oil on preferential payment conditions.