The status of service commissions as entities insulated from political influence has been severely shaken by the ongoing controversy within the Police Service Commission (PSC).
Its implosion was completed yesterday with the resignation of chairman Bliss Seepersad after days of deafening silence from her in the face of the serious claims and allegations swirling around the body.
These events, revolving around an incomplete process for recruiting a new Police Commissioner, have laid bare worrying missteps, gaps and questionable communications for which officials within and without that body must be held accountable.
The deficiencies exposed in a system intended to ensure fairness and transparency in appointments, promotions, transfers and disciplinary matters within the public service, are indicators that service commissions in their current configurations have outlived their usefulness.
As enshrined in this country’s 1962 and 1976 Constitutions, service commissions are supposed to be fully autonomous and able to carry out their functions without discrimination, nepotism or injustice.
The four service commissions—Public Service Commission, Police Service Commission, Teaching Service Commission and Judicial and Legal Service Commission—are vested with responsibilities that are crucial for maintaining a public service that is properly staffed, reliable and fully functional.
But many concerns have been expressed about the system, as it has not evolved sufficiently over the years to meet the needs of a modern public service. These were among issues raised by Independent Senator Anthony Viera in a motion in which he described service commissions as “a critical cog in this interlocking administrative machinery designed to operate in delicate balance coupled with the rule of law and democratic accountability.”
In piloting the motion in the Upper House last year, Senator Viera said: “The country deserves a public service that can respond professionally and in a timely way. If we care about the delivery of the public service in Trinidad and Tobago, we cannot, not after having been made aware of systemic faults, choose not to see them or to deal with them. This motion is about ensuring that the service commissions are fit for purpose.”
While the PSC imbroglio has shone a glaring spotlight on the separation of powers on which the entire system is supposed to the grounded, there are other problems to be addressed.
It should not be overlooked that members of service commissions are performing public service on a part-time basis. They are inadequately compensated and struggling with issues of short-staffing and inadequate funding. For too long, the system has also been bogged down by archaic processes. Reengineering of all four service commissions is long overdue.
Senator Viera’s motion highlighted the need to hold service commissions to account for how they exercise their powers and function, as well as the need for reform. The mess in which the PSC is now embroiled, which will haunt the body for some time to come, further underscores the need to revisit and review the system.
If things are allowed to remain as they are, the PSC mess will not be an isolated incident—it is a warning sign of a contagion that can easily infect the entire system.
The authorities therefore cannot continue to tiptoe around this urgent matter as they seem to be doing now.