Former head of the public service Reginald Dumas says the Office of the President must take the blame for the breach in protocol at Wednesday’s swearing-in ceremony for new Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and National Security Minister Edmund Dillon at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s.
Al-Rawi and Dillon had to be sworn in a second time that same day after they were incorrectly sworn in before the Prime Minister on the first occasion.
“It was a breach of protocol,” Dumas told the T&T Guardian when contacted for comment yesterday.
He said while there was nothing in the law of the Constitution that speaks about the order in which people should be sworn in a new Cabinet, “logic and common sense will tell you that the Prime Minister, who is the head of the Cabinet, has to be sworn in first.”
He said it should be especially so “because it was the Prime Minister who selected the Cabinet,” adding there can be no AG or National Security Minister without a Prime Minister.
“So the Prime Minister should have gone (sworn in) first, then the Attorney General and whoever else after,” Dumas said.
According to Dumas, the order used at the swearing-in on Wednesday “appears to have surprised the entire country.
“It certainly surprised me but perhaps it is new of those powers the President told us that he has that we didn’t know about,” he added.
Asked who should take blame for the mix-up, Dumas said: “It is the President’s Office and the person who is responsible is the President.”
He said while President Anthony Carmona may have been advised by somebody else, “the decision would have been his.”
Dumas said he was again advising the President should have a protocol officer as part of his staff.
“The President’s Office should have a protocol officer to advise, recommend, et cetera,” he added. According to Dumas, the head of protocol in the Foreign Affairs Ministry should “be appointed as the head of protocol in the President’s Office.” (RL)