The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

TERREVE College was successful in its judicial review case against the Department of Public Service, maintaining its status as an approved private tertiary institution on the list of schools recognised by the department.

The institution, which caters to 30 per cent of public servants, was removed from the list in June 2016 as a result of policy changes implemented by the Department of Public Service.

The judicial review application was heard over a course of five dates before Justice Ian Winder. Closing arguments were held in October 2016, and a ruling was handed down on January 5, 2017.

Robert Adams and Zia Lewis appeared on behalf Terreve, and Kirkland McKay and Petricelli Edwards appeared on behalf of the minister of public service.

Justice Winder ruled in favour of Terreve College and ordered that the decision to revise the policy be quashed. Dr Donald McCartney, executive chairman of Terreve College, and owner Terrence Archer, held a press conference on Tuesday at the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce to reveal the outcome of the judicial review, and to inform the public of the school’s current status as an approved institution.

“We are back to the status quo,” said Dr McCartney, who explained that the Department of Public Service changed its policy and were demanding some things of Terreve College and the other small institutions that were unreasonable.

“It would have appeared that…there was one standard for the University of The Bahamas and another standard for the private institutions,” he said.

Due to policy changes, Dr McCartney said that Terreve, which had an articulation agreement with institutions in the US, was requested to go and negotiate an articulation agreement with those other institutions to reflect a four-year period. The department also wanted Terreve to have the logos of those institutions on its degrees.

Dr McCartney said: “Well, other institutions have articulation agreements and you don’t see any logos from any other institutions on their degrees, so why make it difficult for the private institutions in The Bahamas?”

Secondly, Dr McCartney stated that the timeframe placed by the department for compliance to the policy changes was unreasonable.

“The department has every right to change its policy because they are the ones dealing with institutions, but as the justice pointed out, if you are going to make a change it must be reasonable,” he said.

At one point, he said Terreve was given 21 days to comply. “That was certainly unreasonable particularly when dealing with institutions abroad,” Dr McCartney said.

He explained that when Kaiser College, with whom the college had an articulation agreement, learned about the issues with the Department of Public Service, the institution would not deal with them until the matter was sorted out.

“Terreve was caught between a rock and a hard place, and we couldn’t get articulation as the department was requesting us to do. And so Terreve was caught in no man’s land because of the unreasonableness of the timeframe given and the fact they went ahead on June 16, 2016 and declared Terreve as an unapproved institution,” he said.

Dr McCartney said the word spread like wildfire throughout the community and Terreve had no other choice but to seek a judicial review.

“The justice quashed the June 16 circular that said we were unapproved,” he explained.

Attorney Adams had argued that to change the department’s policy as it related to approval, for government purposes, of local institutions and their courses and thereafter remove Terreve off its list of approved institutions was both procedurally unfair and unreasonable.

Counsels for the respondents argued that the decision that Terreve complained of was not susceptible to judicial review.

Justice Winder noted that “not only was the decision amenable to judicial review, but it was also procedurally unfair as no advance notice of the intention to revise the policy of the Department of Public Service was given to Terreve and as the decision was likely to affect the business interest of Terreve, such notice should have been given”.

It was further noted that Terreve had a legitimate expectation that the substantive benefit that came from being on the list of approved institutions would continue, as it had continued for some ten years and that if the said benefit would be withdrawn, a fair procedure would be followed which would involve consulting Terreve and providing grounds for the decision to withdraw the benefit.

The school was also awarded its reasonable cost.

Even though a ruling was made in favour of the college, reestablishing Terreve’s status as an approved institution, Dr McCartney said it does not mean that the Department of Public Service cannot pursue changing its policy.

He believes that the matter could have been resolved with a meeting of the minds. “There are only 10 private institutions in the country, put them around the table and discuss it and determine the way forward,” he said.

“We did not have to go this route, it could have been done around the table. But, unfortunately, some of us in society who have a little power abuse it. And when there is abuse of power where you have fair judicial system you make your appeal to them,” said Dr McCartney.