Sangster

Educator Dr Alfred Sangster is maintaining a hard line against his former colleagues on the Public Service Commission (PSC), despite Prime Minister Bruce Golding's withdrawal of a claim that they were sacked because of misbehaviour while carrying out their duties.

Golding and the other PSC members, who had filed a lawsuit against the prime minister after their dismissal late last year, came to an out-of-court settlement yesterday. Abiding by the terms of the agreement, Golding with-drew his accusation and the PSC members dropped the case.

Arrogant

However, Sangster, the former PSC's lone dissenting voice when the controversy erupted, told The Gleaner yesterday that he believed the members had been at times "arrogant and stupid" prior to their sacking.

He pointed to the PSC's disagreements with Golding over the appointment of Stephen Vasciannie as solicitor general and the treatment of Lackston Robinson, the former deputy solicitor general.

"Those two things for me were areas in which the public service commission was in fact arrogant and in my view, stupid, at times, and really should have had a lot more dialogue with the PM," he said.

Welcomed settlement

Sangster, former president of the University of Technology, did not participate in the filing of the lawsuit. He, however, welcomed news of the out-of-court settlement, saying he had been praying for such an outcome.

"I was praying that some solution would come and I am very happy that this has come, so people have to make friends again and people will have to restore relationships and dignity," he said.

Sangster said disparaging remarks made by Vasciannie about the prime minister in a television interview forced him to adjust his earlier endorsement of him for the job of solicitor general.

Former PSC members Daisy Coke, Michael Fennell, Edwin Jones and Pauline Findlay had brought the lawsuit against Golding for firing them for misbehaviour. Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne was also named in the lawsuit.

The compromise reached between Golding and the four has, according to Sangster, prevented what could have been a nasty court battle.

"It would have been an ugly situation, in which no holds were going to be barred. Political connections and all of that were going to be put on the front ... ," he said.

Sangster argued that the concession agreed to by both sides was the right thing to do, adding: "Compromise is the way government and people solve problems and go forward."

Golding, in a statement outlining the settlement, noted that the termination of the appointment of former PSC members was not intended to suggest acts of personal misbehaviour.

However, Sangster maintained there was "sociological and political misbehaviour" on the part of the group.

He said he agreed with the prime minister's earlier position that the former PSC members had misbehaved.

Sangster held this position on the basis that the commission had failed to carry out a court order to reinstate Robinson to his post.

Instead of reinstating Robinson, the PSC transferred him to another department in the public service, creating what Sangster called a major indictment on the commission.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com