Derek Achong

A T&T Reg­i­ment of­fi­cer has been giv­en the all-clear to pur­sue a law­suit over an ad­min­is­tra­tive er­ror that af­fect­ed his pro­mo­tion­al prospects. 

High Court Judge Frank Seep­er­sad on Thurs­day grant­ed war­rant of­fi­cer class II Mar­lon Ol­livier­ra leave to pur­sue a ju­di­cial re­view law­suit against the Chief of De­fence Staff and the com­mand­ing of­fi­cer of the T&T Reg­i­ment. 

While Jus­tice Seep­er­sad gave Ol­livier­ra two weeks in which to file his sub­stan­tive law­suit, he ex­pressed con­cerns over the case as he point­ed out that it was the third case in­volv­ing T&T De­fence Force pro­mo­tions that have been dock­et­ed to him this year. 

Jus­tice Seep­er­sad said: “This rais­es some dis­qui­et in the court’s mind as it ap­pears there are ei­ther some re­al is­sues of dys­func­tion in the ad­min­is­tra­tive arms as it re­lates to the ad­her­ence to process and pro­ce­dure in var­i­ous stages of pro­mo­tion or there is some dis­con­nect on how the en­gage­ment of that process should un­fold.” 

“One would ex­pect there would be the strictest ad­her­ence to due process in this in­sti­tu­tion,” he added. 

In his law­suit, Ol­livier­ra, who has over 27 years of ser­vice, claimed that the is­sue in­volv­ing his se­nior­i­ty arose in 2012. 

He con­tend­ed that the T&T Reg­i­ment at­tempt­ed to cor­rect the er­ror as had it not oc­curred he should have been placed 21st on the list for war­rant of­fi­cer class I based on his sec­ond-place stand­ing in the war­rant of­fi­cer class II list. 

How­ev­er, he claimed that de­spite as­sur­ances that it would be cor­rect­ed, it was not, and he was by­passed for pro­mo­tion in favour of col­leagues, who should have been ranked low­er than him. 

“My peers have been pro­mot­ed ahead of me, both those of whom were se­nior to me and those who, but for the ad­min­is­tra­tive er­ror, would have been ju­nior to me,” Ol­livier­ra said in his af­fi­davit at­tached to the claim. 

Through the law­suit, Ol­livier­ra is seek­ing a se­ries of de­c­la­ra­tions over the han­dling of his pro­mo­tion and an or­der com­pelling the cor­rec­tion of the al­leged ad­min­is­tra­tive er­ror. 

He is al­so seek­ing com­pen­sa­tion for the salary and emol­u­ments he would have re­ceived had he been pro­mot­ed based on the cor­rect pro­ce­dure. 

The T&T De­fence Force is ex­pect­ed to re­spond to the law­suit once it is filed and served. 

Ol­livier­ra is be­ing rep­re­sent­ed by Ar­den Williams, An­tho­ny Moore, and Mari­ah Ram­rat­tan. 

The case is sched­uled to come up for a hear­ing be­fore Jus­tice Seep­er­sad on Ju­ly 3.