MONROVIA – Based on the complaint filed with the Civil Service Agency (CSA) against the National Elections Commission (NEC) by an employee of the commission, the Director General of the CSA requested the former to appear for a conference of parties over the latter.
In the December 5, 2024 communication, signed by DG Josiah Joekai, the CSA stated: “With compliments, we write to invite the presence of the National Elections Commission for a conference pertaining ‘wrongful dismissal’ complaint, filed against the National Elections Commission by Rennie Boakai Gleegbar, Chairman, NEC Aggrieved Workforce an employee of the National Elections Commission.
“The conference is scheduled for Tuesday, December 10, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. in the 2nd Floor Conference Room of the Civil Service Agency, located at the EJS Ministerial Complex, Congo Town, Monrovia, Liberia.”
The CSA boss then drew the NEC’s attention to Section 6.3.7, (a) of the Standing Orders for the Civil Service which states that “all parties to the appeal/hearing shall have the right to be represented by a person of their choosing”, indicating that this should include a lawyer, even though hearing shall be informal, and rules of evidence shall not be applicable.
As if the NEC found the invite legally taunting or extremely bellicose, it responded quite instantly with elaborate puncturing of the CSA’s reliance, its authority, to investigate the matter and the standing of the “dismissed” employee to make the case.
According to the NEC, the “wrongful dismissal” complaint filed with the Civil Service Agency on December 3, 2024 by Elder Rennie Boakai Gleegbar, a current employee at the NEC, does not worth it because the Civil Service Agency (CSA) lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the complaint and that there is no such dismissal at the NEC.
Quoiting the 1973 Act that established the CSA as an agency within the Executive Branch of Government, said Act does not grant the CSA any authority to direct or review any employment related matter concerning the NEC, which was established as an independent commission under Article 89(B) of the 1986 Constitution of the Republic of Liberia.
Browne-Lasannah posits that because the 1973 Act does not grant the CSA such authority, the CSA cannot, via a Standing Order, assume such authority.
But assuming arguendo that a degree of authority exists, the NEC said, the CSA is prohibited both under the 1973 Act that established it and the 2012 Standing Orders of the Civil Service from reviewing, modifying, or reversing a matter of dismissal, as in the instant case.
The 1973 Act and the Standing Orders are clear that the authority to do so rests with the President of the Republic of Liberia, and where applicable, the agency is only required to notify the CSA of the dismissal; hence, the CSA lacks authority to hear the instant alleged wrongful dismissal, the NEC further argued.
The Commission also indicated that assuming that the CSA had any such authority to probe the matter, the complainant, Rennie B. Gleegbar, who filed the December 3, 2024 on “wrongful dismissal”, is a current employee at the NEC and has not been dismissed, hence, Mr. Gleegbar lacks the capacity to factually and legally file a complaint of “wrongful dismissal” against the NEC.
The NEC further said in the response to the CSA that it does not have any section or group named, “The Aggrieved Workforce” of the NEC, and that the complainant has not presented any instrument to the CSA showing that the said name/group is legally registered as an incorporated or unincorporated association to so operate.
“Moreover, Mr. Gleegbar who signed the complaint is not a lawyer to file a ‘wrongful dismissal’ complaint on behalf of another adult,” the NEC noted. “If Mr. Gleegbar wanted to file a complaint in a representative capacity — as an attorney-in-fact on behalf of any current or former employee — he would need written authorization from that person designating and authorizing him to do so. Because Mr. Gleegbar failed to plead and annex the necessary instruments, the complaint must be dismissed for lack of legal capacity.”
The Browne-Lasannah headed NEC also dismissed the complaint for lack of capacity, indicating that as per the 1973 CSA Act and Standing Orders of 2012, a person who was not appointed under the authority of the said 1973 Act and has not passed the Civil Examination has no right to appeal any action to the Examining Committee or the Board of Appeal of the CSA.
“The complainant herein was not appointed under the authority of the 1973 CSA Act,” argues the NEC. “The complainant was hired pursuant to the authority granted to the NEC under the New Elections Law of 1986, as amended. Hence, the complaint must be dismissed, and the NEC has simultaneously filed along with this response a motion to dismiss the complainant’s complaint.”
The Commission maintained that no staff was dismissed for engaging in a “peaceful protest” and that while the November 5, 2024 presentation of a petition to Director General Joekai of the CSA outside the Commission’s compound and the presentation of a petition on November 11, 2024 in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could be classified as permissible, the same cannot be said of the period that followed (November 12 through 24, 2024) when, in utter disregard to the peace and sanity required of such a work environment, certain staff threatened and took actions to make the Commission ungovernable.
“The NEC submits that no institution of government hires and pays any employee to carry out ‘protest’”, the Commission told the CSA, adding: “Employees are hired to perform specific duties in line with the official functions for which the agency/institution of government they work for was established.”
Said the Commission further: “Hence, an employee who (1) leaves his or her area of assignment; (2) blocks the Commission’s entrances (thereby resulting into other staff, members of the Board of Commissioners, members of the public, and the United Nations Development Programme-Liberia that is housed in the commission’s compound from entering and carrying out their respective functions); (3) coordinates and makes disturbing noises and other unruly acts during work hours in the Commission compound through the beating of drums; (4) put padlocks on the doors of the main building, thereby obstructing the functions of the Commission; (5) threatening and intimidating other staff of the Commission, by writing on the wall next to the Human Resource Section of the Commission: ‘HR we coming for you’, and ‘ED the greedy hunter, you will die’ cannot be said to have been engaged in ‘a peaceful protest.’
“One can submit a petition requesting consideration for additional benefits and still remain orderly; and, where such a person has been misled into doing otherwise, he or she could be apologetic and refrain from making further agitations with threats.”
Concluding its response, the NEC restated that the CSA must dismiss complainant’s ‘wrongful dismissal; complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and/or in the alternative for lack of legal capacity; if the complaint is heard, deny and dismiss it for lack of merit; and, grant unto the NEC such other and further relief deemed just, legal, and equitable in keeping with law.
This stooge of Boakai calling himself Josiah Joekai, needs to go back and learn what an independent regulatory commission or agency entails. He is so functionally illiterate that he does not know that independent regulatory agencies as the NEC, THE CBL etc. are de facto separate branches of government. At least, the Legal Counsel Alvin Teage Jalloh at the NEC has beaten some sense into that empty and dilapidated cracked calabash on his Josiah Joekais shoulders.