Way cleared for appointment of new PSC members
THE Supreme Court yesterday cleared the way for Prime Minister Bruce Golding to appoint new members to the Public Service Commission (PSC) when it refused a request by Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller to extend an injunction blocking any new appointments to the body.
An application by Simpson Miller seeking a judicial review of the firing of the five PSC members – Daisy Coke, Michael Fennell, Edwin Jones, Pauline Findlay and Alfred Sangster – was also refused.
Justice Horace Marsh, instead, upheld an earlier judicial review hearing granted into Golding’s decision to recommend the firings. That judicial review hearing is set for January 10, 2008.
Simpson Miller, had earlier this month, obtained an injunction from the court preventing Golding from appointing new members to the PSC following his dismissal, through Governor General Kenneth Hall, of the previous members.
Golding, in a statement at the time, said his decision to dismiss the members had become necessary because of the “persistent misconduct and unlawful behaviour of the commission in carrying out its function”.
The prime minister said that the blatant disregard for procedural fairness and natural justice demonstrated by the commission was the subject of scathing comments by the Supreme Court earlier this year and that the members should have done the honourable thing and tendered their resignation.
The case to which Golding referred was that of the PSC’s dismissal of acting deputy solicitor-general Lackston Robinson from his post “in the interest of the public” and its failure to reinstate him as ordered by the Supreme Court earlier this year. The commission instead, transferred Robinson to the Tax Administration Services Department as deputy commissioner, a decision for which Robinson is now seeking a judicial review.
Further compounding the matter is the commission’s decision to recommend Dr Stephen Vasciannie as the new solicitor-general, despite resistance from the PM and attorney general.
Simpson Miller is seeking the judicial review to determine whether Golding had breached the principle of natural justice by sacking the PSC members without giving them a chance to be heard concerning his allegations of misbehaviour. She also accused the prime minister of “procedural unfairness” in the matter.
Should the Judicial Review Court rule in favour of Simpson Miller next year, the fired PSC members would have to be reinstated.