‘Hold it, PM’
Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller yesterday urged Prime Minister Bruce Golding not to recommend the appointments of new members of the Public Service Commission (PSC) until the matter of the validity of the dismissal of the previous body is heard by the Supreme Court.
“The matter of whether the members of the Commission had been validly removed as of December 12, 2007 is to be heard in the Supreme Court next Thursday, January 10th, 2008, less than a week away,” Simpson Miller said in a statement.
The members of the Public Service Commission – Daisy Coke, Michael Fennell, Edwin Jones, Pauline Findlay and Alfred Sangster – received dismissal letters from governor-general Sir Kenneth Hall before 9:00 am on December 13, a few hours before the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear a motion filed by Simpson Miller to prevent their dismissals.
According to a December 13 news release from King’s House, the governor-general’s official residence, the instruments of revocation were issued by the governor-general on December 12.
A news release from the Office of the Prime Minister, also issued on December 13, said that Golding took the decision to sack the members of the PSC because of “persistent misconduct and unlawful behaviour of the commission in carrying out its function”.
His comments were in reference to the PSC’s dismissal of acting deputy solicitor-general Lackston Robinson and its failure to obey a court order earlier this year to reinstate him.
The commission instead transferred Robinson to the Tax Administration Services Department as deputy commissioner, a decision for which Robinson is seeking a judicial review.
However, Golding’s critics say he is using the Robinson case as an excuse to cover his disagreement with the PSC’s recommendation of deputy solicitor-general Professor Stephen Vasciannie, as the new solicitor-general, a post left vacant by the departure of Michael Hylton.
After the sacking of the PSC members, Simpson Miller obtained a court injunction preventing Golding from naming new members until after an application for a judicial review of his action was heard on December 28.
When the matter came up in the Supreme Court on December 28, the court refused Simpson Miller’s request for an extension of the injunction, thereby giving Golding the go-ahead to appoint the new PSC members.
The court also refused the opposition leader’s request for a judicial review of the firing of the PSC members. However, Justice Horace Marsh upheld Simpson Miller’s application for a judicial review of Golding’s decision to fire the PSC members, and set that hearing for January 10.
Yesterday, Government sources said new members have been named to the commission, despite next Thursday’s court date.
Under the constitution, the prime minister is required to inform the opposition leader of the members he hopes to appoint to the PSC, but approval is not required.
In her statement yesterday, Simpson Miller reminded Golding that the membership of the Public Service Commission and of the Police Service Commission was arrived at by negotiated consensus between then prime minister PJ Patterson and the then leader of the opposition, Edward Seaga.
“I would expect that whenever the occasion properly arises in the future for the appointment of the membership of these commissions, the same approach will be followed,” she said.