Appointment of new PSC members

Yesterday, Kings House announced the appointment of five new members of the Public Service Commission, headed by Amb. Donald Rainford. The announcement was made despite the litigation that is about to commence on January 10 challenging the lawfulness of the PM's recommendation for dismissal of the previous members of the PSC. Recently, the Leader of the Opposition had asked the PM to hold off on new nominations, but the PM has clearly ignored this request. One wonders what implications this will have for the 2005 decision of the political parties to have consensus on appointments to Services Commissions. The rule of law continues to be masticated and spat out.



Another strange feature of this reappointment process is the participation of the Jamaica Civil Service Association. Under the constitution, one of the PSC members must be a nominee of the JCSA. The new JCSA nominee is Audrey Hastings, who is reportedly a former secretary of the JCSA. Given the JCSA's opposition to the PM firing of the Daisy Coke-chaired PSC, I wonder why they have opted to cooperate with the PM now in nominating someone for the new PSC.

If the Supreme Court rules that the government acted unlawfully in recommending the dismissal of the Coke PSC, then surely that must mean that the appointment of the Rainford PSC cannot stand in law. Any appointments made by the Rainford PSC must also suffer the same legal consequence. Oh what a mess! What may compound this is if the Coke PSC successfully challenges the PM's grounds for their dismissal. As I have said elsewhere, the misbehaviour grounds are unlikely to withstand proper legal scrutiny.