Narda wants Senate Committee report quashed

Her dismissal was a direct result of the recommendations of the Senate Select Committee but tonight Narda Garcia is fighting back, determined not go down without a fight. According to court reports, this morning Garcia’s attorney, former Solicitor General, Elson Kaseke filed a motion in the Supreme Court asking that the committee’s report be quashed on fourteen grounds. The thrust of Garcia’s argument, as outlined in her thirty page affidavit, is that the committee did not provide her with a copy of the auditor’s report, did not tell her that she had the right to bring a lawyer to the public hearings or that she could have cross examined other witnesses. But more generally, Garcia is claiming that under Senate rules, the committee had no legal right to hold an inquiry into the affairs of the Social Security Board. It must be noted that Elson Kaseke, then in his capacity as Solicitor General, provided legal counsel to the members of the Senate Select Committee … a fact that can be construed as a conflict of interest. In July, Senators Godwin Hulse, Dickie Bradley, Reverend Moises Chan and Rene Gomez recommended that Garcia be dismissed from her post as General Manager of the S.S.B. based on their probes into the financial affairs of the fund. The Registrar has set Monday October thirtieth to hear Garcia’s motion.