Court action may be Whyte-Nedd’s only option – GPSU

Sep 10, 2009 News

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By Sharmain Cornette

The absence of the Public Service Appellate Tribunal (PSAT) may leave Acting Chief Education Officer, Ms Geneveive Whyte-Nedd, with the single option of seeking redress in a court of law if she is to be appointed before her retirement next year.
At least this is according to General Secretary of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), Ms Chandrawattie Persaud, who revealed yesterday that Whyte-Nedd, who has been acting in her current capacity for more than five years, has already been advised of the possible option. This newspaper has however been unable to ascertain whether Whyte-Nedd would take such a course of action.
Persaud disclosed that the union has written repeatedly to the Public Service Commission (PSC) which is tasked with facilitating the appointment, even as she added that “I don’t know at this moment what else the union can do.”
According to her, if no positive action is forthcoming there is no other public institution other than the PSAT that can address the concerns of public officers. She emphasised the fact that it has been just about four years now that the PSAT has ceased operation.
Persaud vaguely recounted that the Tribunal was last headed by Mr George Fung-On, who was relieved of that post after he was placed as the Chairman of the PSC.  No other person has since been appointed to head the PSAT thus causing it to become defunct.
The Constitution and the laws of Guyana provide for the PSAT which is designed to give a hearing to public officers who are of the belief that they have not been treated fairly by the PSC. Without the PSAT, Persaud said that the court is the only other option that is available, which oftentimes can prove to be a very lengthy undertaking.
But according to President of the Guyana Trades Union Congress, Gillian Burton, the absence of the PSAT should have nothing to do with the appointment of Whyte-Nedd as she has acted long enough in the position and also has the requisite qualifications to fill the post.
As such Burton noted that her union will not sit idly by and allow public officers, the likes of Whyte-Nedd, to continue to act in positions that they are aptly qualified to fill.
“We will not let up until all public servants who have not been appointed are appointed. We don’t expect to get the results overnight but we will see that we get the results,” said Burton yesterday.
She disclosed that the union will be “going all out, whatever it takes. We have only just started; we know that we have a long way to go yet.” Meanwhile, Chairman of the Alliance For Change, Khemraj Ramjattan, in an invited comment last evening regarded the non-appointment of qualified officers as a deliberate act that is being orchestrated by the administration. In fact he pointed out that “they know that these qualified people will not be their loyalists, especially the President’s loyalists, so these officers like the Acting Chief Education Officer will remain in their acting positions.”
The general theory behind the non-appointment, Ramjattan divulged is that the administration “does not care about professionalism; they don’t care about you, whether you are comfortable to function in your capacity.”
Moreover, the entire country is affected, the AFC Chairman outlined, even as he noted that the security and comfort to perform is not possible when persons are not allowed to be noble and honourable in their capacity.
“If I do what they want me to do I will get the appointment…If I don’t I will not, that is the policy of this administration. Even if they don’t directly control you it will be vicariously, they will have you in their reins.” As such, Ramjattan noted that non-appointments will continue, even as those in acting positions remain constant.
Although Whyte-Nedd will reach the age of retirement in the new year, there has been no word as to whether she will be appointed in order to receive the full benefits of the substantive position.
According to Patricia Went, Industrial Relations Officer within the GPSU, the senior officer stands to lose a considerably amount of financial benefits if she is not appointed before retirement.
Went disclosed the obvious fact that once the Acting Officer is not appointed as the substantive Chief Education Officer she will not be able to benefit from the pension and gratuity of the substantive position.
Whyte-Nedd, Went revealed, had acted in the capacity of Chief Education Officer three times between the period 2000 and 2004 and continued acting in that capacity when the position became vacant in September 2005. And it was in 2005 that Whyte-Nedd opted to apply for the position but yet was not appointed. The GPSU, as a result, had written to the PSC, the Ministry of Education and President Bharrat Jagdeo to no avail.

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