Court refuses application to review contract

The National National

THE Waigani National Court has refused a judicial review application filed by a former senior officer from the Finance Department.
Judge Leka Nablu on Friday refused the application of Mary Martin, who applied for review of her contract as the assistant finance secretary for the accounts payable branch.
The petition followed her termination on July 15, 2013, by the then acting finance secretary Sir Manasupe Zurenouc.
Sir Manasupe had terminated Martin’s contract over charges related to four payments made to Paul Paraka Lawyers.
Martin sought a review of that decision from the Public Services Commission on July 31, 2013, and also gave notice to the solicitor-general on Aug 19, 2013.
On July 16, 2014, the Public Service Commission (PSC) decided to withdraw the acting secretary’s decision to terminate Martin’s contract of employment. The PSC decided that:

  • The commission withdrew the decision of acting finance secretary Sir Manasupe to dismiss Martin from the Public Service;
  • Martin be immediately reinstated as assistant secretary; and
  • Martin’s lost salaries and contractual entitlements be backdated and paid in retrospective to the date of which she was dismissed.

The State argued that the then acting secretary was well within his rights to refuse to comply with the PSC decision.
State submitted that the PSC had failed to consider the plaintiff’s application within the statutory time limit. The State also argued that the PSC failed to make the decision within 90 days pursuant to the mandatory process stipulated in the Public Services Management Act.
Justice Nablu saids the main issue was whether the defendant had the power to refuse to implement the PSC decision.
“Section 18 provides procedure for review of a personal matter,” he said.
“The provision provides the review procedure which should be undertaken by the PSC when dealing with reviews of this nature.”