Prime Minister Bruce Golding has said, in an out-of-court settlement with four of the five sacked members of the Public Service Commission (PSC), that his recommendation to sack them was not intended to suggest they were involved in any acts of dishonesty, corruption or personal misbehaviour.

Lawyers representing the parties announced yesterday that there was an out-of-court settlement when they came for hearing before the Judicial Review Court. The parties said it was not in the national interest to pursue the matter.

Upset over appointment

The former PSC members - Daisy Coke, Michael Fennell, Edwin Jones and Pauline Findlay - had filed a suit against the prime minister and the attorney general seeking orders to quash Golding's recommendation which resulted in them being sacked in December 2007.

In the suit, filed in January this year, the former PSC members said it was their contention that, under the Jamaican Constitution, they had committed no misbehaviour as the prime minister contended when he made his recommendation to Governor General Sir Kenneth Hall for them to be dismissed.

Move to bar dismissals

The former PSC members and the Government had been at odds since October last year when the PSC recommended that Professor Stephen Vasciannie be appointed the new solicitor general. Douglas Leys was appointed solicitor general earlier this year.

Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller had first filed a motion in the Supreme Court on December 12 last year, seeking an injunction to bar the prime minister from recommending the dismissals.

The injunction was granted on December 13, 2007 but, by the time the injunction was granted, the governor general had fired the PSC members hours before.

Simpson Miller subsequently obtained an injunction barring the prime minister from making recommendations to fill the vacancies.

However, on December 28 last year, Justice Donald McIntosh refused to grant an extension of the injunction and the new PSC members were subsequently appointed.

Simpson Miller was seeking to take the matter to the Judicial Review Court, but the case was thrown out after the Court of Appeal upheld an appeal brought by the prime minister that lawyers representing Simpson Miller did not comply with certain court rules.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com