CJ will today clear up the issue of Sooba’s Town Clerk appointment

ACTING Chief Justice, Mr. Ian Chang, SC, will today rule on an application by City Hall’s Public Relations Officer Royston King, who is seeking writs or Orders directed to the Local Government Minister to show cause why his decision to appoint Carol Sooba as Town Clerk of the Georgetown Municipality should not be quashed.

The application, dated December 17th, 2013, is contending that the Minister who appointed Sooba as Town Clerk should be made to show why his decision, which is contrary to the legitimate expectation of the applicant, should not be quashed.

King is also requesting that an Order or Rule Nisi of Certiorari be issued directing the Minister of Local Government to show cause why his decision to appoint Carol Sooba as Town Clerk should not be quashed as a decision which was unreasonable and/or perverse for reason that the said Minister wrongfully failed to apply the criteria which he had established for the identification of the candidate best suited for the position of Town Clerk; and further, that the said Minister of Local Government used extraneous unrelated criteria, which criteria was not in the public interest.

But in his affidavit in answer, Minister of Local Government, Mr. Norman Whittaker, said it is clear that academic qualifications were not, and could not have been, the sole criterion which was taken into account.

He explained that, indeed, the M&CC of Georgetown has had a long list of very academically qualified Town Clerks, who have failed to discharge the functions of the office competently and diligently, and this reality was also taken into account by the Minister.

Carol Sooba worked at M&CC, Georgetown for 16 years, holding the position of Legal Officer. She is a final year student pursuing a Bachelor of Laws Degree at the University of Guyana.

In his affidavit, Minister Whittaker said that he had been advised by the Attorney General, and does verily believe, that the applicant King had failed to make out a case for the grant of ‘unlawfully’, ‘unreasonably’, ‘irrationally’, the prerogative
remedies which he seeks, inasmuch as he has not established that the appointment of Carol Sooba to the position of Town Clerk was wrongfully, unlawfully, unreasonably, irrationally done; or that same was done in breach of the rules of natural justice, ultra vires, or in a manner which defeats the legitimate expectation of the applicant.

(By George Barclay)