Exam Board could be ruled null and void

A HIGH Court Judge yesterday expressed the concern that if he delivered a ruling next week that Cabinet had no constitutional authority to appoint the Public Services Examination Board (PSEB), which sets exams for public servants including police officers, whether the entire board could be deemed null and void. And as a consequence, Justice David Myers said in the San Fernando High Court, whether the very exams they set, could be deemed a nullity.

Justice Myers, presiding in the San Fernando High Court, also expressed the view that whatever ruling he makes next week, would affect other public servants who write the Public Service exams, by virtue of Cabinet appointing the PSEB. The State through its attorneys agreed yesterday that any ruling against Cabinet having such a role would have a consequential effect on all acts performed by the board. Justice Myers yesterday heard legal submissions on behalf of two policemen who sued Cabinet, since 1996, appointing the PSEB. The policemen are Cpls Eusebio Cooper and Clifford Balbosa. The PSEB set exams for all public servants including policemen. Cooper and Balbosa decided to challenge the executive, through the Cabinet, appointing the PSEB. The Constitution created various service commissions to make appointments, facilitate promotion and discipline public servants.

Attorneys Fenton Ramsahoye QC, instructed by Anand Ramlogan, told Justice Myers that since 1996, the Executive (Cabinet), under three successive Governments, had been unconstitutionally appointing the PSEB. He contended that such an authority was solely for the Public Services Commission (PSC). The State, which challenged the action, replied yesterday. State Attorney Nirad Ramrekersingh submitted that the degree of influence by Cabinet over the PSEB was too remote for a High Court to find that there is the likelihood of influence by the Executive. He said there was a degree of separation between Cabinet which appoints the PSEB and the Board itself which sets the exams. Included on the State’s team were Assistant Solicitor General Krishendaye Narinesingh, instructed by State Attorney Sharon Sharma.

But in answer to the judge’s concerns, Ramrekersingh urged the judge to consider the calibre of persons appointed to the PSEB. One of them was a UWI lecturer, another was the Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education. In reply, Ramlogan said the unconstitutionality of the appointment cannot be condoned merely because persons of integrity comprised the Board. Cabinet’s involvement in selecting persons who should comprise the people who set exams for policemen, was a dangerous precedent, Ramlogan submitted. It meant, he told Justice Myers, that whichever Government was in power could select persons who may exercise judgment in “passing certain policemen, then equip them with arms to thereby facilitate that Government with its own police force.”