By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterPROSECUTORS IN the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions are restive over the recent appointment of a Clerk of the Courts from St. Ann to the position of Acting Crown Counsel who they claim was promoted over the five assistant Crown Counsels who were in line.
The Clerk took up the appointment on March 3.
The prosecutors held a meeting on Saturday where they voiced their disapproval and threatened to take industrial action.
It was disclosed at the meeting that a letter was sent to Prime Minister P.J. Patterson informing him of the situation. According to the prosecutors, the PM had replied saying he had referred the matter to the Public Services Commission, which in turn advised the prosecutors that it had just received the report of the enquiry into the administrative functions of the DPP's office, which has been under probe.
The Commission said it needed time to respond to the most recent complaint as it was in the process of reviewing the report from the enquiry.
The prosecutors agreed that they would put the industrial action on hold to await the outcome of the enquiry. The PSC had announced in December last year, that it had ordered a probe into the administrative functions of the Office of the DPP, as a result of negative publicity and the breakdown of staff relations there. David Muirhead Q.C. was appointed chairman of the Commission.
The prosecutors feel that one of the five assistant Crown Counsels should have been appointed acting Crown Counsel, and that the clerk should have entered the DPP's office at the position of assistant. They said the five assistants have been at the department for several months, and were senior and more experienced than the clerk.
DPP Kent Pantry, QC, was not available for comment last week as it was reported that he was at court in Montego Bay. A Senior Prosecutor was asked to comment, but said he could not give any details on the issue.
