By: Eoghan Olkeriil Ngirudelsang
Koror, Palau – As Whipps’ 2nd term as president continues, decisions are being made at the ministerial level by special advisors raising questions on whether special advisors or non-national officers have the authority to make binding decisions within their respective ministries.
The question has been raised in the Olbiil er a Kelulau. An internal inquiry was made by Senator Remengesau whereby the Senate’s legal counsel produced a response letter last month dated June 9 to Remengesau stating that the practice is unconstitutional and that those “individuals may not exercise the powers delegated by statute to a minister”. The counsel further pointed to the President’s constitutional duty to appoint ministers.
In a recent announcement, Special advisor to President Whipps on education matters Dr. Dale Jenkins moved the start date of all public schools from July 28 to next week August 4th.
When asked in an interview about his authority to decide the starting date of public schools, Jenkins said plainly, “No, I do not have the authority”. He shared that currently, none in the ministry of education has the authority to make that decision except the minister. As for the ministry of education, the President serves as the minister.
Jenkins shared to Island Times that classes were scheduled to begin on July 28, however, after the Pacific mini games the schools were not ready. He shared, “You know that many of the schools were used as housing for the games so the classrooms were emptied. After the games, I was told that the teachers were even working on weekends to prepare the classrooms for the start of the schools. So we decided to push back the start of the classes by just 1 week”.
“We thought that the contractors would do it; put back the furniture and all the learning materials back into the classrooms after the games but that was not what happened”.
Jenkins highlighted the significant logistical efforts to move all furniture and learning materials back into the classrooms revealing that the time to complete these tasks which was after the Pacific mini games until the start of classes on July 28 was simply not enough and also the teachers, many of which were part of the games need time to rest”.
Jenkins also explained that “the President was off-island” at that time and that is why he made that decision. “We had to make a choice. We either go ahead and start the school on July 28 with unprepared classrooms and very tired teachers or we push back the start of classes simply by 1 week”. Jenkins assured that the number of school days will not be affected.
As the government operations continue, the question remains, on when will the president appoint ministers to head 2 very large and significant ministries that still do not have a minister. As circumstances arise, we could again see a struggle between necessity and following the legal process of decision making in government. Jenkins shared that “the president has not lost hope” on his reappointment but that will be up to the senate to decide.