Beseo: Respect Balthazar appointment

By JEFFREY ELAPA
THE appointment of Cor­rectional Services acting commissioner Martin Balthazar had been vetted by the public service commission and must be respected, CS Minister Sai Sailon Beseo says.
Beseo, responding to criticisms against Balthazar’s appointment, the most recent from the National Intelligence Organisation, said the vetting process was done by various constitutional authorities such as the PSC and the Ombudsman Commission.
He said the comment in the media attributed to former Commissioner Richard Sikani that Balthazar was under investigation by the Ombudsman and the Teaching Service Commission over an incident which occurred 20 years ago “is an issue solved years ago”.
He said the court case Sikani and other disgruntled CIS officers were referring to was the judicial review sought by Balthazar in the National Court to review the commissioner’s decisions.
He said it was a civil proceeding and had no criminal conviction as alluded to by those who had a “personal agenda against the minister or the chief secretary”.
“The fact remains that I was not misled by Martin Balthazar nor by any other person and comments attributed to the chief secretary and myself are blatant misrepresentation of the facts,” he said.
Beseo said  Sikani should explain why he gave evidence in the 1989 investigation that Balthazar was not at the  scene of the alleged offence.
He said Balthazar had applied to rejoin the CS in 2001 from the Teaching Service Commission as assistant commissioner (personnel, finance and training).
His appointment was vetted by the department of personnel management and the national execu­tive council.