BELIZE City, Fri. Apr. 16, 2021– A ruling has been issued in regard to the case brought by Deputy Comptroller of Customs Ian Haylock against the Government of Belize. The case was part of an effort by Haylock to challenge the legality of the appointment of the current Comptroller of Customs and to assert that he instead should have been appointed to that post.

Supreme Court Judge Westmin James, however, delivered his ruling in favor of the Government of Belize. The judicial review application was first made around the start of this year, when the Briceño administration appointed the new Comptroller of Customs, Estelle Leslie.

Leslie, who is the first female officer to be appointed to that highest rank within the Customs Department, was one of three senior customs officers qualified for the appointment.

Ian Haylock, a career customs officer for 33 years, claimed that he was passed over by the new administration, despite being one of the most senior and highest qualified for the post.
His claim, brought by attorneys Senior Counsel Dean Barrow and Darrell Bradley, was based on his assertion that he was denied his right to be consulted during the government’s process of selecting the person who would be appointed to the post of Comptroller, and also, on questions surrounding government’s decision to remove the appointment from under the purview of the Public Service Commission (PSC).

Haylock’s attorneys attempted to prove that he had a legitimate expectation to be consulted before the appointment of Leslie to the post. The government’s attorneys, led by Senior Counsel Godfrey Smith, contended, however, that Haylock did not have the legal right to be consulted by the government in regards to the appointment or the removal of the position from under the control of the PSC.

The government’s attorneys contended that he would have had to have been promised the position. Otherwise, there would have had to have been a policy document which put him next in line for the appointment, or a longstanding custom would have had to have been in place which mandated that he be consulted in order for the law of legitimate expectation to be applicable in his action.

Judge Westmin James agreed with the Government’s arguments after some weeks of review and delivered his ruling last week via teleconference.

The claimant has 21 days to apply to the Court of Appeal if he decides to appeal the decision. At this time there is no indication whether he will do so.