By FRANCIS JOSEPH
It was another victory for acting Assistant Superintendent, Mark Hernandez.
After winning the case in the High Court, he was successful on Friday before the Court of Appeal. The court dismissed the appeal brought by the Commissioner of Police.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal by the Commissioner of Police against the High Court ruling that invalidated the promotion exercise for officers seeking advancement to the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police, clearing the way for the entire process to be restarted.
In the judgment delivered on Friday, the three judges agreed with the decision of Justice Frank Seepersad, who found serious breaches of the Police Service Act and Police Service Regulations in the conduct of the 2024 promotion exercise.
Acting ASP Hernandez had challenged the process after receiving a promotional assessment score of 29.7.
The appeal was heard before Justices Prakash Moosai, Mira Dean-Armorer, and Eleanor Donaldson-Honeywell, who agreed that the Commissioner had failed to establish grounds for overturning the High Court’s decision.
In her judgment, Justice Dean-Armorer concluded that the promotion exercise was compromised by multiple failures to comply with statutory requirements, including the use of assessment panel members who lacked the qualifications prescribed by law.
The dispute originated in July 2024, when the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service initiated an assessment exercise for inspectors seeking promotion to ASP.
The process was administered by Odyssey Consultancy Ltd, a private consultancy contracted to conduct the assessments and prepare an Order of Merit List.
Candidates were evaluated through performance appraisals, written examinations and oral assessments.
However, Mark Hernandez challenged the legality of the exercise, alleging that the statutory safeguards governing the selection and assessment of candidates had not been followed.
He later obtained permission to pursue judicial review, along with an interim injunction preventing the continuation of the exercise.
On February 18, 2025, Justice Seepersad ruled in his favour, declaring aspects of the assessment process illegal and ordering that the entire exercise be started all over again. The then Commissioner of Police, Erla Harewood-Christopher, appealed the decision.
One of the central issues before the Court of Appeal concerned the qualifications of individuals appointed to assess officers seeking promotion.
Evidence revealed that two of the three individuals who assessed Hernandez did not possess qualifications in policing.
Although the appellate court disagreed with Justice Seepersad’s interpretation that panel members were required to be serving or former police officers, it maintained that they must possess the policing qualifications expressly required by the Regulations.
Justice Dean-Armorer found that appointing assessors without those qualifications constituted a breach of the law.
COP MUST HAVE RESPONSIBILITY
Attorneys representing the Commissioner of Police argued that the statutory framework placed responsibility for designing and implementing the assessment process on the contracted company.
The Court of Appeal rejected the suggestion that outsourcing the exercise relieved the Commissioner of responsibility for ensuring compliance with the law.
Justice Dean-Armorer held that although the Commissioner must not interfere with the consultant’s independent assessment functions, the Commissioner retained responsibility for ensuring that the contracted service provider acted lawfully.
The court determined that this responsibility arose directly from the Constitution and the Police Service Act.
START OVER
In determining whether the promotion exercise should be invalidated, the Court of Appeal examined the seriousness and cumulative effect of the statutory breaches.
Justice Dean-Armorer observed that the promotion system was designed to ensure that appointments to senior positions within the Police Service were conducted fairly, transparently and on merit.
The court found that the irregularities were not isolated or insignificant, but affected several critical stages of the assessment process.
While acknowledging that restarting the exercise could delay promotions, the court determined that the public interest in ensuring lawful and merit-based appointments to senior police positions outweighed that inconvenience.
The appellate panel upheld the High Court’s decision to quash the exercise and require that it be recommenced in accordance with the governing legislation.
