VICTORY FOR COMMON SENSE
Devant Maharaj’s winning of his application for judicial review of the decision of the Statutory Authorities Service Commission (SASC) not to appoint him to act as Deputy Director of the National Lotteries Control Board (NLCB) was a victory both for justice and common sense. The truth is it should never have been necessary for Maharaj to have had to seek redress in the Court with respect to this matter. Established practice in the public and quasi-public sector demanded that in the absence of stated reasons to the contrary, Maharaj should have been appointed to act on the basis of seniority.
Evidence adduced at the hearing of the application for judicial review showed that not only had Maharaj not been provided with reasons for his being by-passed for the acting appointment, but that Prime Minister Patrick Manning had been consulted by the SASC with respect to the appointment. Maharaj’s name was submitted to the Prime Minister and later withheld by the PM with no reason given. This, clearly, had been taken by the Service Commission to mean that the Prime Minister had withheld approval. Later, when the name of another person, Gemma Joseph, was submitted to the Prime Minister formal approval by the SASC followed.
Oddly, the SASC declared that it consulted with the Prime Minister on appointments, presumably as a matter of policy. But for the SASC or indeed any Service Commission to seek to consult with the Prime Minister on persons to be appointed to “hold or act” in any position, over which, among other things, it has been assigned to determine, is clearly outside of clearly laid down procedure in the 1976 Republican constitution of Trinidad and Tobago. For while the Constitution makes provision, under Section 127 (1), for a Service Commission to seek approval of the Prime Minister for the delegating of specific functions, and under Section 129 (1) provision is made also for a Service Commission to seek his consent with respect to certain procedure, each, with “may” as the operative word, there is nothing to show that the PM’s consent is required for appointments, acting or otherwise, to any post.
The Statutory Authorities Service Commission was appointed to do a job which included the appointment of officers in accordance with established requirements. And to run to the Prime Minister to seek his advice and/or consent on such appointments could not have been expected of the commission and is clearly absurd. The country will wait to see how the SASC deals with the Devant Maharaj issue, now that a High Court Judge, Justice Mira Dean-Armorer, has quashed its decision to appoint Joseph to act as the NLCB’s Deputy Director rather than Maharaj. In addition, Dean-Armorer has ruled that the commission was neither required to consult with the Prime Minister nor obtain his concurrence as a pre-condition to any appointment of any officer to hold or act as Deputy Director of the NLCB.
Additionally, the judge has directed that should the commission decide to appoint someone other than Maharaj to act in the post it was required to furnish Maharaj with written reasons within 14 days. As we noted earlier it has been a victory both for justice and common sense. We, and we are certain, all concerned citizens, await the decision of the Statutory Authorities Service Commission with regard to the Commission’s appointment to the post of NLCB Deputy Director.
Comments
"VICTORY FOR COMMON SENSE"