"New" PSC to interview candidates for the positions of Solicitor General and DPP this week

According to a news story in today's Gleaner (Feb 25, 2008), the new PSC (I prefer to call it the "pseudo-PSC") will, during the course of this week, be interviewing candidates for the posts of Solicitor General and Director of Public Prosecutions.

Douglas Leys is reported as the only applicant for the job of Solicitor General. However, during Nationwide News Network's "This Morning" programme today, Emily Crooks and Naomi Francis indicated that another candidate has belatedly submitted an application. They did not reveal the identity of this applicant, but promised to do so shortly.



The short list of applicants for the position of DPP are:

Paula Llewellyn (currently Senior Deputy DPP)

Terrence Williams (currently DPP of the British Virgin Islands, and formerly a prosecutor with the Jamaican Department of Public Prosecutions); and

Hugh Wildman (currently an adviser to the government of Grenada, and a former DPP of Grenada). Like Terrence Williams, Hugh Wildman was also previously a prosecutor in the Jamaican Department of Public Prosecutions.

As is well known by now, the Prime Minister's decision to dismiss the Coke-PSC has been judicially challenged by the Leader of the Opposition and four of the dismissed Public Service Commissioners. If the courts find that the dismissal of the Coke-led PSC was unlawful, then this must ultimately affect the legality not only of the new PSC, but any appointments made pursuant to its recommendations. I wonder whether the applicants for these positions have contemplated this possibility.

I had heard some time ago that the government was actively courting Hugh Wildman for the position of DPP. Hugh and I are batchmates, having both graduated from the Norman Manley Law School in 1988. Hugh is fierce prosecutor, but has proven to be extremely controversial/contentious. He is the only person I know who has managed to provoke lawyers (in Grenada) to take to the streets when the government of Grenada wanted to appoint him Attorney General. While Hugh and I get along quite well, the truth is that he has had a history of alienating fellow professionals both in Jamaica and Grenada. I don't question his competence as a prosecutor. However, I don't see Hugh as having the interpersonal and other skills necessary to successfully lead the Department of Public Prosecutions.

Terrence is a solid prosecutor too, but for my money, Paula Llewellyn is the best qualified of the lot. The Department of Public Prosecutions needs a leader who is not only a technically proficient prosecutor, but who has the interpersonal skills to rebuild staff morale, something which appears to have been damaged during Kent Pantry's tenure as DPP. In November 2002, the Public Service Commission appointed a panel led by David Muirhead, QC to probe the administrative functions of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, following press reports of organizational disharmony. One source of this disharmony appears to have been lack of a clear system of appraisal or opportunities for promotion. Paula Llewellyn herself acted as Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions for years before she was ultimately confirmed. In 2003, prosecutors took industrial action to protest the lack of implementation of recommendations made by the Muirhead committee with respect to improved systems of appraisal and promotion. While the problems of the Department of Public Prosecutions cannot all be attributed to the outgoing DPP, his successor will have the challenge of infusing the Department with an esprit de corps that has been missing for some time. I don't see any of the applicants but Paula Llewellyn having the capacity for this.