Acting CoP extension not unanimous

Last night, Newsday was told that the PSC’s decision to give Williams an extension came after the Commission reversed its earlier decision to allow Harold Phillip to continue to act as CoP. Sources said the decision to give an extension to Phillip was agreed to by the PSC, by a margin of 3 to 2. However, sources said, that decision was set aside and the PSC instead gave an extension to Williams.

Sources last night said, “The decision to reappoint (Williams) was not unanimous.” Contacted for comment, PSC chairman Dr Maria Therese Gomes neither confirmed nor denied this information.

Gomes advised Newsday to verify the authenticity of this information. At a news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister on September 2, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley questioned whether there were deliberate efforts to obstruct the appointment of a CoP.

The Prime Minister had said, “my understanding is that the PSC is attempting to get the process going but there are obstacles in the way.” The Prime Minister continued, “Those obstacles seem to multiply. It’s like a Hydra... you cut off one head...another one comes on.” He added, “The Government is very frustrated on the fact that with all the will in the world...there seems to be no pathway towards a CoP who will effectively move on certain particular matters which are before the CoP.” Rowley said he was, “reluctantly coming to the conclusion that there are obstacles in our way which may have their root in a conflict of interest.” He said, “a nonsense” which came to Cabinet from the Public Service, “was a reluctance to move forward unless the Government provides $6 million to allow a local firm to commit to evaluate the applications.” The Prime Minister explained this figure was, “the cost of doing it through Penn State abroad and a whole set of hoops and costs...that was what we eliminated by changing the Order and confining the search to using a local firm and confining the search to nationals at home or abroad.” The orders for the process for the PSC to begin the search for CoP were approved by Parliament last year, but Government had attempted to simplify the exercise with proposals of its own. A challenge was filed by a member of the public in the Port-of-Spain High Court, and in a ruling, in July this year, Justice Peter Rajkumar upheld the new selection process to appoint a CoP and Deputy CoP but struck down two aspects as unconstitutional.

The judge deemed as incursions on the PSC’s autonomy, the fact that the Minister of National Security had to request the process to start as well as a stipulation that the PSC had to use State-owned Nipdec to recruit the candidate. However, at the time of the ruling, the PSC had already started the process under the terms of the partly-impugned order.