Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has admitted to signing off on the appointment of new Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) chief elections officer Fern Narcis.
On Tuesday, Opposition Senator Wade Mark, in delivering his Budget contribution in the Senate, said the Public Services Commission (PSC) had appointed a junior officer on contract who is the first cousin of Public Administration Minister Maxie Cuffie. Mark, who was referring to Narcis, described it as an attempt to hijack democracy, adding the PSC was breaking well-established regulations.
But during a media conference at the Piarco International Airport on his return from the IV CARICOM-Mexico Summit yesterday, Rowley said he did not know anything about the matter and went on to caution T&T “not to go down the road of other countries that started on these slippery slopes and can’s come back up.”
“One of the few of our institutions that find favour with the public and who have kept their duty out of bacchanal…is the Elections and Boundaries Commission. I don’t know who the person is related too, but that direction of talking about the independence of the EBC because somebody is somebody’s distant pumpkin vine cousin, I would say no more on that because I don’t know about it,” Rowley said.
He said he did sign off on the appointment, but could not remember who the person was. Rowley said the recommendation did come to them, but added they had no interest in the matter, “as we had not been, in terms of, we have no horse in the race…we rely on the institution and this development that questioning somebody who got a job like that, because somebody is saying that they related to somebody down the road, I advise this country to stay away from that…that is how some countries lost their way because that is the forerunner to question the election results.”
He added: “I have no knowledge of this person’s pedigree and ancestry…what I do know is that the service commission looked around and would have chosen the best candidate for the job and the Government had no involvement.”
In its own response to the matter, the PSC said in accordance with the provisions of sub-sections (3) to (5) of Section 121 of the Constitution, the PM was consulted to ascertain whether he had any objection to the appointment of Narcis. It added that the PM confirmed in writing there was no objection to the appointment and the PSC subsequently appointed her.
The PSC denied Narcis was a “junior officer on contract.”
“Mrs Narcis, prior to her appointment as Chief Elections Officer, was the senior legal officer, on contract, at the EBC,” the PSC said, adding it took all reasonable measures to ensure there was no information or circumstance that could compromise the PSC or the EBC and that the best available candidate was selected.
“The PSC wishes to emphasise that it is an independent constitutional body and that the recruitment process utilised for the selection of the best possible candidate was fair and transparent,” it added.