Suspended State Lands Commissioner gets court's permission to challenge claims

SUSPENDED Commissioner of State Lands Paula Drakes has received permission from the High Court to pursue her legal challenge to accusations against her.

She is also seeking an order from the court for her reinstatement, and for the decision to suspend her and have her face a disciplinary tribunal expunged from her employment record.

Drakes also wants compensation for salary lost and aggravated and exemplary damages because of the conduct of the Public Service Commission (PSC).

On Monday, Justice Carol Gobin granted Drakes permission to claim for judicial review for several declarations against the PSC.

Drakes, who was appointed on October 10, 2016, was suspended twice after assuming the job, first in May 2018 and again in June that same year.

After her first suspension, on May 28, 2018, Drakes received correspondence saying the commission had decided to “take no further action” on an allegation of misconduct against her, that her suspension was being lifted and she could report to work with immediate effect.

She did so, but on July 9, 2018, she received a second suspension notice in which she was told of new allegations of misconduct against her.

On December 28, 2018, Drakes was told charges would be laid against her and the commission was proposing to “interdict her from duty” with half-pay. She remains on suspension.

These are the decisions of the PSC that she is challenging.

Her attorneys, Keith Scotland and Jacqueline Chang, have contended that the PSC’s failure to give Drakes a reason for the withdrawal of the initial charges and for the new charges was irrational, unfair, unreasonable, unjustified, unconscionable and a breach of natural justice.

As part of her application for judicial review, Drakes intends to ask for several administrative orders, including one to quash the decision of the PSC to prosecute or try the disciplinary charges against her despite her “vehement denial” of the charges.

The allegations against Drakes surround concerns raised in relation to land allocation with indirect family links.

Drakes said she was never given any warning of an adverse report against her in keeping with Public Service Commission regulations. She also said she had not seen any regulation which allowed a random member of the public to make an adverse report against a public officer, except where some criminal process had been completed in the courts.

She also expressed concern over newspaper reports which coincided with the commission’s first letter to her which referred to the disciplinary charges.

Drakes said she was never told why the six charges against her were withdrawn and then six identical or similar disciplinary charges were laid, nor was she allowed to attend the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors' conference in the Bahamas in 2019.