Tribunal allows appeal of former Chief Secretary [1]
Sunday, May 14, 2017 - 23:52
The Public Service Tribunal has allowed the appeal of Busby Kautoke against the termination of his contract of employment by the Public Service Commission (PSC) on 18 April 2017.
In addition to allowing the appeal, the Tribunal ordered that the decision to terminate his contract of employment be set aside, and the costs of the appeal, as agreed or as taxed by the Tribunal be paid by the PSC.
Mr Kautoke was suspended indefinitely from his post as Chief Secretary and Secretary to Cabinet at 4.30pm, Thursday 5 April 2012 by the PSC for not maintaining proper payment records although it was only announced later in the year on 8 August 2012.
He claimed that the termination of his contract was unlawful and lodged an appeal with the Public Service Tribunal.
On 16 August 2012, Mr Kautoke said in a statement that the PSC brought charges against him, relating "to the keeping of vouchers for the purposes of a pilot scheme by the Ministry of Finance to effect partial devolution of financial management to the Prime Minister's Office. . . ." He said that records in paper forms were kept at the Prime Minister's Office, but a computerized version under a system known as "Sun System" was maintained by the Ministry of Finance.
The Tribunal allowed the appeal on 21 March 2013.
On 19 June 2013, the PSC applied to the Supreme Court for a judicial review of the Tribunal’s Ruling and was granted by the Lord Chief Justice on 24 June 2013, but it was delayed until 29 February 2016.
After the judicial review the Chief Justice ruled in favour of the PSC on 8 April 2016, setting aside the Tribunal’s Ruling. However, he directed the Tribunal to “reconvene and rehear the Appellant’s appeal”.
During the appeal, the Tribunal noted that the two charges were brought against Mr Kautoke by the PSC under regulation 10 (1) of the Public Finance Administration (Public Funds) Regulations 1984, which outlines the details required to be inserted in vouchers for payment.
However, the Tribunal found that the particulars of the two charges listed out in a letter by the PSC related only to the keeping of vouchers for payments in order to allow for proper accounting records and audit purposes and did not specify any such failure that Mr Kautoke had signed any voucher or that he had failed to insert the required particulars in any voucher or payment voucher.
In light of this, the Tribunal’s decision remains that the appellant’s appeal is allowed on the basis that "the two charges were and are invalid and they could not form any valid basis upon which the Appellant could lawfully be found guilty or to constitute a valid basis to dismiss the Appellant and terminate his contract of employment under any clause of the contract or under any provision of the Public Service Act 2002, any Public Service Regulations, the Public Finance Management Act 2002 or any Regulation made thereunder".