Chapter 10: State Services.Chapter 10 of the 1997 Constitution of Fiji is titled State Services. Its fifteen sections establish certain civil service offices, specify their functions and jurisdictions, set out the qualifications and preconditions required of persons holding such offices, and prescribes the manner of their appointment.
Section 140 lays down the basic principles for the recruitment and promotion of state officers. With the objective of implementing government policies as effectively and efficiently as possible, appointments are to be made on merit, but care is to be taken to ensure equality of opportunity for both men and women, and for members of all ethnic groups. All levels of the state service should reflect the ethnic composition of the population. However, occupational preferences should also be taken into account when appropriate. This is a recognition that for cultural or religious reasons, certain ethnic groups may disproportionately choose or eschew certain occupations.
Section 141 requires all public office holders, except judges, to be citizens, although exceptions are allowed for with the specific approval of the Prime Minister.
Sections 142 through 145 establish several "independent service commissions." A new body, a three-member Constitutional Offices Commission is established for the first time; two other bodies, the Public Service Commission (four to six members) and the Disciplined Services Commission (three members, formerly known as the Police Service Commission), both established by the former 1990 constitution, are continued in existence.
All appointments to the three Commissions are made by the President of Fiji on the advice of the Cabinet Minister responsible for the civil service, following consultation by the latter with the appropriate Parliamentary committee, which is empowered to confirm or veto the nomination.
In the event of a vacancy or of a Commissioner being unable to carry out his or her duties owing to absence, illness, or any other cause, the Prime Minister may, after consulting with the Leader of the Opposition, advise the President to appoint someone to act in his or her capacity in the interim. If the office of the chairperson of any of the commissions is vacant, or if the chairperson is unable to perform his or her duties for any reason, the remaining members may elect a temporary chairperson from among themselves.
The section disqualifies from membership of an independent service commission persons who are, or have been in the three years prior to appointment:
Members of, or candidates for, the House of Representatives or the Senate, or any local authority or representative body.
National office bearers of a political party which has contested a general election or a byelection in the said three-year period.
Holders of other public offices.
Members of either of the other two independent service commissions. The chairpersons of the commissions are exempt from this rule, however.
The section further forbids the appointment of members of any independent service commission to any other state service during their tenure as commissioners, or for three years after the expiry of their term. These disqualifications are intended to safeguard the independence of the commissions from political interference, and to forestall any potential abuse of office by a commissioner to secure appointment to another office.
Sections 147 through 151 specify the functions of the Public Service Commission. It is empowered to appoint, remove, and take disciplinary action against holders of public offices.
Offices that are explicitly excluded from the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission include judges, offices for which the Constitutional Offices Commission or the Disciplined Services Commission are responsible, offices which come under the jurisdiction of the Judicial Service Commission or of any body prescribed by Parliament, military offices, and all offices referred to in the Constitution, except for the Secretary to the House of Representatives and the Secretary to the Senate. With the agreement of the Cabinet Minister responsible for the civil service, the Public Service Commission may choose not to exercise its prerogatives; Parliament then has two sitting days to allow or disallow that decision.
There are certain limitations on the powers of the Public Service Commission. No holder of an office under the direct control of the President, the Secretary of the House of Representatives or of the Senate, the Ombudsman, or the Auditor-General, may be appointed, removed, or disciplined, without the approval of the person to whom the office holder is responsible. The Prime Minister must approve all appointments to the positions of Secretary (head) of a government department, or of Secretary to the Cabinet. The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition must both be consulted over the appointment of members of agricultural tribunals (other than the Central Agricultural Tribunal) under the Agricultural Landlord and Tenant Act (Fiji), although neither has a veto.
Ambassadors and other diplomats are appointed and removed by the President, on the advice of the Prime Minister. If the person to be appointed as an ambassador or diplomat is a member of a state service, the Prime Minister must consult the Public Service Commission.
Parliament is empowered to specify pensions for ambassadors and diplomats who have been removed from office. It may also authorize the Prime Minister, or another Minister, to transfer holders of public officers to specific roles in department responsible for foreign affairs; in some cases, these may be required to live outside of Fiji.
Subject to conditions imposed by Parliament, the Public Service Commission may delegate to one of its members or officers, or to the holder of any public office, any or all of its functions except its responsibility to appoint, remove, or discipline members of agricultural tribunals, a Secretary of a government department or any person acting in that capacity, and the Secretary to the Cabinet.
Parliament may make laws to provide for appeals against decisions of the Public Service Commission, and may set up a relevant body to hear such appeals.
Sections 152 through 154 specify the functions of Disciplined Services Commission. It is empowered to make appoint, remove, or discipline officers of the police force and the prisons service. The Commissioner of Police and officers holding any rank equal or inferior to senior inspector are excluded from this provision. The Commissioner of Police, rather than the Disciplined Services Commission, exercises authority over such officers; although the decision to dismiss or demote any police officer requires the approval of the Commission .
Subject to conditions prescribed by Parliament, the Disciplined Service Commission may delegate any or all of its powers to one of its members. It may also delegate to the Commissioner of Police or the Commissioner of Prisons any or all of its powers in relation the police force or the prisons service, respectively. The Prime Minister must approve, in writing, any delegation of powers to the Commissioner of Police.
Section 155 clarifies that for the purposes of this chapter, "independent service commission" means the Constitutional Offices Commission, the Public Service Commission, or the Disciplined Services Commission.
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enforcement, prosecutions or even responsibility for legal affairs generally. In practice, the extent to which the attorney general personally provides legal advice to the government varies between jurisdictions, and even between individual office-holders within the same jurisdiction, often depending on the level and nature of the office-holder's prior legal experience.
The Lord Chancellor, formally the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking among the Great Officers of State who are appointed regularly in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the Prime Minister. The Lord Chancellor is outranked only by the Lord High Steward, another Great Officer of State, who is appointed only for the day of coronations and to preside over impeachment trials of peers. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister. Prior to their Union into the Kingdom of Great Britain, there were separate lord chancellors for the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland; there were Lord Chancellors of Ireland until 1922.
The President of Malta is the constitutional head of state of Malta. The President is indirectly elected by the House of Representatives of Malta, which appoints the president for a five-year term and requires them to swear an oath to "preserve, protect and defend" the Constitution. The President of Malta also resides directly or indirectly in all three branches of the state. They are part of Parliament and responsible for the appointment of the judiciary. Executive authority is nominally vested in the President, but is in practice exercised by the Prime Minister.
The president of Sri Lanka is the head of state and head of government of Sri Lanka. The president is the chief executive of the union government and the commander-in-chief of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces.
Chapter 6: The Parliament.Chapter 6 of the Fiji Constitution is titled The Parliament. The five Parts, further subdivided into forty sections making up this chapter, set out the composition, functions, and powers of Fiji's bicameral legislature.
Chapter 7: Executive Government.Chapter 7 of the 1997 Constitution is titled Executive Government. There are five Parts, further subdivided into thirty sections, which set out the organization, functions, and responsibilities of the executive branch of government. Modeled on the Westminster system, Fiji's constitution does not separate the Executive and Legislative branches of government as strictly as do many democracies, but despite considerable overlap, the branches of government are nevertheless constitutionally distinct.
Chapter 9: Judiciary.Chapter 9 of the 1997 Constitution of Fiji is titled Judiciary. It is divided into twenty-two sections, setting out the composition and functions of the Judicial branch of the Fijian government.
Chapter 11:Accountability. Chapter 11 of the 1997 Constitution of Fiji is titled Accountability. Its 19 sections, divided into 5 parts, include a code of conduct expected of all government officers and employees, and establish a number of constitutional offices.
The Attorney General of Ireland is a constitutional officer who is the legal adviser to the Government and is therefore the chief law officer of the State. The Attorney General is not a member of the Government but does participate in cabinet meetings when invited and attends government meetings. The current Attorney General is Paul Gallagher, SC.
The Order of precedence in New Zealand is a guide to the relative seniority of constitutional office holders and certain others, to be followed, as appropriate at State and official functions. The previous order of precedence is revoked and Her Majesty The Queen approved the following Order of Precedence in New Zealand effective 20 September 2018:
The Queen of New Zealand.
The Governor-General or, while acting in the place of the Governor-General, the officer administering the Government
The Prime Minister.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives
The Chief Justice
The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps
The Deputy Prime Minister
Ministers of the Crown
Former Governors-General
Ambassadors and High Commissioners in New Zealand and Chargés d’Affaires accredited to New Zealand.
The Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives
Leaders, including co-leaders and joint leaders, of political parties represented in the House of Representatives, other than Ministers of the Crown.
Members of the House of Representatives. There is no established order of precedence over members of parliament in general, although each party has its internal ranking.
Judges of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, the Court of Appeal and the High Court of New Zealand.
Former Prime Ministers, former Speakers of the House of Representatives, former Chief Justices, and members of the Privy Council.
Mayors of territorial authorities and chairpersons of regional councils, while in their own cities, districts and regions. In 1989, boroughs and counties were amalgamated into district councils. District mayors, and the Chatham Islands mayor could expect to be accorded this same precedence.
The Public Service Commissioner, Chief of Defence Force, Commissioner of Police, and Officers of Parliament .
The Solicitor-General, Clerk of the House of Representatives, and Clerk of the Executive Council when attending a function involving the exercise of the position’s specific responsibilities.
Chief executives of public service and non-public service departments.
The Vice Chief of Defence Force, and Chiefs of Navy, Army and Air Force, and other statutory office holders.
Consuls-General and Consuls of countries without diplomatic representation in New Zealand.
Members of New Zealand and British orders, and holders of decorations and medals in accordance with the Order of Wear in New Zealand.
A permanent secretary is the most senior civil servant of a ministry in the United Kingdom, charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis. Similar offices, often employing different terms, exist in many other Westminster-style systems and in some other governments.
The Governor-general of Ceylon was the representative of the monarch in the Dominion of Ceylon from the country's independence from the United Kingdom in 1948 until it became the republic of Sri Lanka in 1972.
Fiji has a unified national police force, the Fiji Police, whose motto is Salus Populi meaning "Health of the People".
The Fijian constitutional crisis of 2009 began on Friday, 10 April 2009. Fijian President Ratu Josefa Iloilo announced on a nationwide radio broadcast that he was abrogating the Constitution of Fiji. He dismissed all judges and constitutional appointees and assumed all governance in the country after the Court of Appeal ruled that the government of Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama was illegal. Iloilo reinstalled Bainimarama as PM and his Cabinet members to their positions. He also instituted emergency rule which increased police powers and allowed media censorship.
The Constitution of Bhutan was enacted 18 July 2008 by the Royal Government of Bhutan. The Constitution was thoroughly planned by several government officers and agencies over a period of almost seven years amid increasing democratic reforms in Bhutan. The current Constitution is based on Buddhist philosophy, international Conventions on Human Rights, comparative analysis of 20 other modern constitutions, public opinion, and existing laws, authorities, and precedents. According to Princess Sonam Wangchuck, the constitutional committee was particularly influenced by the Constitution of South Africa because of its strong protection of human rights.
The Constitution of Barbados is the supreme law under which Barbados is governed. The Constitution provides a legal establishment of the structure and various roles of administration of the Queen of Barbados, the Government of Barbados, as well as legal rights and responsibilities of the public and various other government officers. The Constitution which came into force in 1966 was amended in 1974, 1978, 1990, 1992, 1995, 2002, and 2003. The 1966 document succeeds several other documents concerning administration of Barbados. One of them, the Barbados Charter, is discussed in the present Constitution's Preamble. Prior statutes were created for the administration of Barbados as a colony. As a former English and later British colony, the Constitution is similar to those of other Commonwealth realms, yet distinctly different in the spirit of the Statute of Westminster. In recent years there has been some dialogue on whether Barbados should undertake a process of patriating the constitution to cease the foundation being a 1966 Act of the British House of Commons.
Edward Zammit Lewis is a Maltese politician within the Labour Party and is currently Minister for Justice, Equality and Governance. He has been a member of the Maltese House of Representatives since 2013. Following the general elections held on 9 March 2013, won by the Labour Party, he was appointed to serve as Parliamentary Secretary for Competitiveness and Economic Growth. In April 2014, he was appointed Minister for Tourism, a post which he occupied up until June 2017. This was followed by his appointment as Minister for European Affairs and Equality in July of 2019 till January of 2020.
The Constitutional Council (CC) is a 10-member constitutional authority in Sri Lanka tasked with maintaining independent commissions and monitoring its affairs. The Constitutional Council is aimed at depoliticizing the public service.
The Bangladesh Administrative Service (BAS) is the premier civil service cadre of the Bangladesh Civil Service, and which formulates and executes the policies of the government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh of which it is an inseparable part.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
