SAINT LUCIA
One of Saint Lucia’s most prominent legal activists says the Caribbean nation’s Public Service is out of control and infected by lawlessness.
Coordinator of the National Centre for Legal Aid and Human Rights, Mary Francis (pictured) noted concerns expressed by the Executive Director of the Saint Lucia Chamber of Commerce, Brian Louisy, about the leakage of confidential documents.
“This is all about the lawlessness that I am talking about in the Public Service,” Ms Francis said in a newspaper interview.
“In the Public Service I knew there were faults, but I don’t think it ever operated in this lawless and arbitrary fashion,” she said.
“People cannot be using the Public Service to fight their political wars and prejudice this country. They have to leave their partisan politics out of the Public Service.”
She said the level of partisan politics in the Public Service was unprecedented.
“You have people at the highest level that don’t seem to understand the principle of administrative law and fairness. They seem to want to be in positions just to be in a position,” Ms Francis said.
“I have received complaints from people in the Public Service that their Heads of Department are disregarding proper procedures — I do not know whether this is wilful or due to ignorance.”
She made specific reference to the Saint Lucia Fire Service, stating that all was not well there as officers “appear to be doing things willy-nilly, and disregarding the rules including regulations pertaining to transfers”.
Castries, 25 August, 2018
