Saying that ministerial directives to two constitutional commissions were due to bad legal advice, political analyst David Hinds believes that the government ought to be mindful of the political implications.
Hinds made these comments in reaction to a recent court ruling by Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George SC that State Minister Joseph Harmon showed blatant disregard for the constitution when he issued a directive to the Secretary of the Police Service Commission for the body to halt its consideration of planned police promotions. The ruling was similar to an earlier judgment in 2015, when a court found that Minister Simona Broomes, then Junior Minister of Social Protection, unlawfully directed the Public Service Commission to suspend interviews to fill vacancies in her ministry.
“This business of ministers giving directives to commissions smacks of political overreach… [and] bad political optics that should for the most part be avoided. I am glad the court has signaled its intolerance for it,” Hinds told Sunday Stabroek in a recent interview.
Hinds, an executive member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), which