Ramlogan brought his call for the dissolution of Trinidad and Tobago's Public Service Commission into the public domain on 15 October, a stance he put forward after a Privy Council decision came down in favour of a prison officer contesting his pay. Three distinct appeals were set out in a statement distributed through the Express and a second Port of Spain daily: that the six commissioners step down, that the Prime Minister examine whether the commission remains constitutionally necessary and fit for purpose, and that abolition be pursued within a broader programme of constitutional reform.
Ramlogan prevailed in the case, though his contentions that the commission manipulates promotions and tolerates discrimination remain unproven assertions yet to be tested against evidence. Lord George Leggatt's remarks from within the court were trained on how the commission had handled the matter involving one particular officer.
Following a Privy Council decision that sided with retired fire officer Siewnarine Ramsaran, Ramlogan publicly urged the commissioners to step down and called for an examination of the commission's role and standing, with the ruling handed down in September 2025. A demand for abolition found its way into the revised document.
Under Section 120 of the Constitution, the commission takes shape with a Chairman and Deputy Chairman at its head, alongside a further two to four appointed members. Nominations to those posts flow from the President, whose choices are shaped by prior consultation with both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. Under Section 121, the commission holds authority spanning appointment, promotion, transfer, confirmation, and disciplinary action over the public officers within its remit. Any attempt to dismantle it would require transferring those same authorities into a replacement body.
Appointment durations set out in Section 126 run to five years at most, with a floor of three years for abbreviated terms. Removal of a member by the President is permitted on two grounds alone: demonstrated incapacity to carry out the role, or proven misconduct.
Its reach extends to the Public Service Commission alone. Each of the three bodies — the Police Commission, the Teaching Commission, and the Judicial and Legal Service Commission — operates independently of the others.
Under Section 54(2), any legislative proposal seeking to amend sections 116 through 125 requires the backing of at least two-thirds of all members in both chambers before it clears the final vote. With a 41-seat House requiring 28 votes to reach a majority, and a 31-member Senate where 21 votes clear the threshold, both chambers carry their own arithmetic for passage.
Tallying 26 seats in the House of Representatives, Persad-Bissessar's United National Congress secured that standing only after the electoral commission ran three separate recounts following the April 2025 vote. Thirteen seats went to the People's National Movement, while the Tobago People's Party secured two. Securing passage in the House would require the UNC to draw on backing from a minimum of two members sitting across the aisle. Of the 31 Senate appointments, 16 fall under the Prime Minister's advisory remit, meaning at least five additional supporting votes would need to come from a pool of six opposition senators and nine independents.
A proposal put forward by Keith Rowley during his time as prime minister in 2023 would have replaced the existing service commissions with a single tribunal tasked with handling complaints from public servants. Nothing in the reviewed materials indicates that plan was ever put into action.
A ruling from the Privy Council sided with Favianna Gajadhar on appeal, reinstating the High Court's finding that her constitutional property rights had been violated by the State. Backdated salary reached her in May 2024, a development that followed the 2023 ruling handed down by Justice Frank Seepersad, as the Express noted in its coverage. Listed as respondent on the court's case page is the Attorney General rather than the commission. A dispute over halving costs, noted on the case page, had yet to be resolved as of the reporting available.
As of the latest reporting, the Attorney General's office and the commission had each offered no public statement on the matter. By 16 October, neither the Prime Minister, the Attorney General, nor the commission had been recorded as acknowledging Ramlogan's call.
