Former PMG Clare Wallace Wins Court Case Against Govt For Unlawful Demotion

The government of Dominica has lost a court case against former Postmaster General (PMG), Clare Wallace. The former PMG instituted a litigation, through her lawyer Kondwani Williams, against the government for unlawful demotion to a lesser rank and transfer between September 2016 and January 2018.

Within the given period, the Public Service Commission (PSC) moved Wallace as the substantive Postmaster General to become the Deputy Director of Audit and then later appointed her a Trade Officer 1. According to attorney Kondwani Williams, the PSC acted unlawfully in appointing or transferring Wallace from one office to the other especially since Section 86 of the Dominica Constitution applies to those offices and positions.

Williams contended that transferring a PMG to Trade Officer 1 is actually a demotion which is unconstitutional, null, and void and of no effect in law since the post of a PMG is not equivalent in grade and status to that of a Trade Office 1. The lawyer stated that his client legally retains her position as the substantive PMG of the Commonwealth of Dominica as appointed by the President in accordance with PSC recommendations of October 20, 2011 which the President implemented pursuant to Section 86(2) of the Constitution.

Williams requested the court to have the PSC withdraw its unlawful transfer and appointment letters and return Wallace to her position of substantive PMG. The Office of the Attorney General argued that Wallace erred in law by instituting a court case one and half years after the transfer and appointment under contention, stating that the time lapse invalidated her case.

But Judge Bernie Stephenson who presided over the case disagreed, ruling that the PSC erred first and had no legal powers to appoint or remove anyone from a public office to which Section 86 of the Constitution applies.

“The decision of the PSC to remove and purportedly transfer the claimant from the post of PMG was contrary to sections 85 (3)(a) and 86 (2) of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Dominica and is, therefore, unconstitutional null and void and of no effect in law,” Judge Bernie Stephenson ruled.

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