Jail for witnesses who ignore Public Service Commission summons

New rules that will come into force in 2016 for the Public Service Commission – the constitutional body responsible for staffing in the civil service staff – will give it powers to summon witnesses under pain of a three-month prison sentence.

The new legal notice introduces “guiding principles” that call on the PSC to “uphold... freedom from discrimination, patronage or favouritism” – important principles for Labour, whose electoral pledge in 2013 in favour of meritocracy was however put paid by the hundreds of political appointments and ‘person-of-trust’ jobs inside ministries.

Under the new rules, the PSC will “uphold the principles of justice, fairness, merit, equality of opportunity, impartiality, and freedom from discrimination, patronage or favouritism.”

The rules give the PSC powers of inquiry as well as the power to summon witnesses under pain of a maximum €1,164 fine and even a three-month prison sentence.

PSC inquiry boards will be composed of three-man commissions, who will have protection and privilege in case of any lawsuit against them in the execution of their duties as is by law given to judges in the exercise of their judicial function.