Firing Deputy Solicitor General “unconstitutional” – fmr PSC Chairman

…says justice was not carried out

Days after it had been revealed that the Public Service Commission (PSC), as one of its final acts, had fired Deputy Solicitor General Prithima Kissoon, a former Chairman of the PSC is describing the act as unconstitutional.
According to former Chairman Carvil Duncan, a case can be made for an appeal against the commission’s decision, based upon the fact that a full Commission did not meet to make the decision.
“Justice was not carried out. Because the commission ought to realise that they are an independent commission and not subject to any threat or political direction. At that time when she was terminated, the commission per se did not meet,” Duncan said, in an interview with this publication.
Duncan said that PSC Commissioner Patrick Yarde and another commissioner had proceeded with the decision. He noted that, at the time, both he and another commissioner were nowhere in the picture.
Duncan and Yarde, along with fellow commissioners Vidyawattie Looknauth, Patricia West and Mohammed Akeel, were appointed to the PSC in 2014. However, Duncan was suspended from his post by President David Granger last year, and Trade Unionist Yarde was subsequently appointed in May of this year.
“So there were only four commission members, and the quorum is three. So anytime two members are absent, any decision made is not a valid decision. It’s unconstitutional, and therefore the results of the decision are unconstitutional. So it’s enough grounds for appeal,” Duncan explained.
Earlier this week, the now former Deputy Solicitor General, in a public statement, said that with a mere six hours remaining before its life expired, the PSC had terminated her services. She said this was done purportedly on the recommendation of ‘an illegal’ Commission of Inquiry set up by the Public Service Commission. And according to the Attorney-at-Law, a new PSC will convene and a previous complaint by her against Attorney General Basil Williams will never be addressed.
According to Kissoon, “My good name has been filched, my character assassinated, my career that I worked so hard to build in the public service for the past 10 years lies shattered at my feet; but my integrity and ethics are rock solid.”
She said this unlawful Commission of Inquiry was hurriedly constituted with indecent haste on August 18, 2017, and issued a summons on August 21, 2017, for Kissoon to appear before the purported CoI on August 23, 2017, and the PSC came out with the verdict of dismissal on August 31.
Kissoon was sent on leave earlier this year with the permission of the PSC, but had later found that the Permanent Secretary of the Legal Affairs Ministry had objected to her leaving the country while on leave, and a decision was taken to withhold her salary.
The debacle came to the public fore in January last, when Kissoon lodged a formal complaint to the PSC against the Attorney General.
She was, in March 2017, informed by the PSC that she should proceed on administrative leave with immediate effect, pending the outcome of investigations into several court matters that she had conduct of.
The AG had launched a probe into cases which Deputy Solicitor General Kissoon was involved, following a ruling handed down by the Court of Appeal, dismissing a State-sponsored appeal against a High Court decision that quashed a private criminal charge against Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo.
The Appeal Court ruled that the appeal was null after Kissoon had conceded to a claim by Jagdeo’s lawyer that the Attorney General was not a proper party to the proceedings. Williams had reportedly since blamed Kissoon for the outcome of the case.
However, although he has blamed Kissoon for the case, Solicitor General Sita Ramlall, in a letter to the Editor, had pointed out that Williams had insisted to Kissoon and herself that he be named as the plaintiff in the appeal when he was not a party.