6 prison officers win over non-promotion

A HIGH COURT Judge has slammed the Public Service Commission (PSC) for illegally accepting an ‘‘unsolicited list of names’’ of prison officers to be promoted.

Instead of using the list supplied by Commissioner of Prisons Leo Abraham, the PSC accepted a list from Assistant Commissioner of Prisons Herman Rougier, thereby leaving out the names of six prison officers who were recommended for promotion to Prison Officer II.
Yesterday, Madame Justice Mira Dean-Armorer ruled in favour of the six prison officers and granted judicial review of the decision of the PSC which failed to comply with the PSC regulations. The six prison officers — Charles Vernon Frederick, Mookish Pulliah, Sham-shudeen Mohammed, Adrian Pascal, Wilbert Lovell, and Kundan Nancoo — were in court when Justice Dean-Armorer delivered her judgment in the Port-of-Spain Third Civil Court. In her judgment, Justice Dean-Armorer said the PSC acted illegally on the basis of the unsolicited list supplied by Rougier. She ordered the PSC to now consider the original list supplied by the Commissioner of Prisons. She pointed out that if the PSC did not promote these six officers, the Commission must provide reasons to each of them why it had not done so.

Justice Dean-Armorer ordered that this matter receive the urgent attention of the PSC. She noted that the failure of the PSC to promote the six applicants would amount to a collosal disadvantage to the prison officers in relation to their peers. The judge ordered the Attorney General to pay costs. Anand Ramlogan appeared for the six prison officers, while acting Deputy Solicitor General Krishendeo Narinesingh and State attorney Sanjiv Lalla represented the Attorney General. The six applicants contended that they have more experience in performing the duties of the office of Prison Officer 11 than at least 53 of the officers recommended and promoted. They further contended that they were never informed about the reasons for the decision to omit their names from the list of candidates that were recommended for promotion.