Court upholds decision to disband Task Force Sweep team

A COURT has ruled that a Cabinet decision in 2014 to disband the Investigation Task Force Sweep team stands, as it cannot review a policy decision by the Government.
Last Friday, Justice Colin Makail dismissed an application filed by Sam Koim – appointed by the Government as the team chairman when the body was set up in August 2011 – to review the Cabinet decision.
Makail discharged the interim stay order on the decision issued by the court on July 8, 2014, and extended on July 28, 2014.
Makail ruled that the decision by Cabinet on June 18, 2014, to disband the team was not reviewable by the court because it was a policy decision made and endorsed by the Government.
He ruled that Cabinet (National Executive Council) had the authority to change its policy decisions at any time.
Makail said it would be contrary to the law for the court to intervene in policy decisions made by the Government.
He said the appropriate actions, if people were aggrieved by a Cabinet decision, were to exercise their constitutional rights to replace the Cabinet members at the elections, or have the prime minister voted out of office in a vote of no-confidence through Parliament.
The court also noted that Koim lacked legal standing to commence the proceeding as chairman of the team because his contract of employment as the principal legal officer at the Office of the Solicitor-General had expired on June 27, 2014.