President Remenegsau said ministers could continue to serve in his cabinet until such time as he dismisses them.
This was his response to outgoing Sen. Joel Toribiong who claimed that under the Constitution a cabinet member who already been confirmed in the Senate must be re-confirmed following the installation of a new Congress.
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Remengesau in his letter to Toribiong dated January 11 explained that the Constitution does not require a president re-entering his second term to re-submit names of appointees or ministers for confirmation from the new Senate.
On the contrary, Remengesau said the constitution says that the ministers should serve “at the will of the president.”
“Nothing in the text of the Constitution or Title 2 suggests that duly appointed and confirmed ministers must be reconfirmed upon the installation of a new OEK and in fact the text plainly states otherwise, “ Remengesau said.
Sen. Toribiong in his January 10 letter to the president said that the current practice of letting ministers stay in their posts despite the incoming new Senate is “an affront to the authority of the newly-installed government.”
Toribiong said all cabinets ministers should resign at the end of the outgoing administration and that the president under the new government re-submit appointees to the ministries so that the new Senate “may exercise its power of advice and consent for the new administration.”
Remengesau however said Toribiong has the wrong interpretation of the Constitution and that it also creates an “anomalous results” in other areas that requires advice and consent of the Senate such as previously ratified treaties. [/restrict]