Damion Mitchell, News Coordinator - Radio

  Sangster

A former member of the Public Service Commission (PSC), Dr Alfred Sangster, is supporting the prime minister's decision to recommend the dismissal of the five-member body.

In a letter to the governor general late last year, the prime minister, Bruce Golding, recommended that the PSC members be dismissed for misbehaving, and yesterday, Dr Sangster expressed agreement with the recommendation.

"There is good grounds for the Prime Minister's action," Dr Sangster told The Gleaner/Power 106 News Centre. "The prime minister's position can be upheld in court."

Dr Sangster's comments came hours after his four former colleagues filed a suit in the Supreme Court challenging their dismissals. Daisy Coke, Pauline Findlay, Mike Fennell and Edwin Jones filed a suit against the prime minister and the attorney general, claiming that their dismissals were unconstitutional.

But, Dr Sangster said he does not wish to be party to any suit challenging the authority of the prime minister.

Like the prime minister, he has criticised the PSC for failing to carry out a court order for the reinstatement of Lackston Robinson as acting deputy solicitor general.

In a July 2007 ruling, the Supreme Court said it was unfair for Robinson to be reverted to his substantive post of senior assistant attorney general without being assessed for the job in which he was acting when there was a clear vacancy.

Transferred

Instead of reinstating Robinson, the PSC transferred him to another department in the public service, creating what Dr Sangster called a major indictment on the commission. "Clearly, that's a good case for misconduct," he continued.

But, the former PSC member says he was not a part of the commission at the time of the July 2007 court ruling in favour of Robinson.

Turning to the PSC's recommendation for Professor Stephen Vasciannie to be appointed Solicitor General, Dr. Sangster said, last year he agreed with his four colleagues that the Professor should be selected to succeed Michael Hylton as Solicitor General.

But, according to Dr. Sangster, at that time, he was not aware of a 2002 newspaper article in which Professor Vasciannie severely criticised the return of Bruce Golding to the Jamaica Labour Party after leading the National Democratic Movement.

Dr. Sangster said having learnt of the article, he made three attempts to have the PSC members review the recommendation, but he was not successful in having it withdrawn.

"The Vasciannie comment was in fact a sensitivity which the Public Service Commission should be aware of," Dr. Sangster said, adding that the utterances of Professor Vasciannie could seriously undermine a potential relationship between the Office of the Solicitor General and the Prime Minister.