Government Nominates another Person to Chair Public Service Commission

Crescencio Sosa

The Public Service Commission remains without a chairperson. For health reasons, Crescencio Sosa, the last nominee that was agreed upon by government and the opposition, had to give up the position before he even occupied the seat. Now the government has come up with another name which it hopes the opposition will agree to. Public Service Union President, Dean Flowers, had proposed someone but the Prime Minister said there are some legal issues surrounding that name. That aside, he went on to chide Flowers for what he thinks is acting outside of his office.

John Briceño

Prime Minister John Briceño

“Crescencio Sosa was the first that we really attempted to nominate and everybody had great respect for Crescencio Sosa who worked extensively for both governments. Unfortunately, just before he was to start his work he got sick and so is his wife, so as a family they said that it’s best that he does not take up the position because for those that know Crescencio Sosa, once he takes on something he goes all out and obviously because of his condition he would not be able to do that. Once that happened, then we have been looking and trying to find somebody that meets the criteria that would be able to do a good job to be able to get rid of all the backlog within the Public Service Commission. Last week after discussing a number of – many, many names were coming up and a lot of them we felt that they are just too close to the P.U.P. although they would have been competent and we could have named them but we just felt it’s best – tek yoh time and put somebody good as opposed to just put somebody deh just because. So last week I interviewed Diana Murillo Price, em, who has been a public officer for forty years and she in the process of retire probably in the next two, three weeks from now. And she has said that she would be honoured to take on that position, so if the Leader of the Opposition has not been written to, he would be written to between today or tomorrow on the name.  But the Public Service Union President needs to understand what is his role. If he wants to name those names, then he can be elected and become a leader of a party and then become the prime minister. They can make recommendations and if he could only be a little bit more respectful, I think he could get a lot more done.”

Marion Ali

“What about the people that he represents though, the public officers – a lot of them are going to retire and they are on the waiting list.”

Prime Minister John Briceño

“No, I agree. Trust me; I understand the issue of trying to address that matter. We have a number of public officers that have retired and they need their money. So we want to get it done. As soon as Ms. Murillo takes over that position, trust me we’ll ensure that we can get that done as quickly as we possibly can, but we want to make sure that we find the right person.”