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DUE PROCESS IS DUE

Jun 04, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

On election night there was a mini riot in Sophia. The property of a man was set alight by a crowd.
The television flashed scenes of the incident. It showed young men jumping up in glee, high fiving and otherwise celebrating the fact that the property of a fellow resident was set alight. Those celebrating were mainly young men. They found happiness in the misfortune of a fellow human being, one that resided in their area.
It was so sad to see this, sad for the man to have suffered losses but even more, sad to see young people feeling good about his tragedy.
Right now there are many persons in our society who are happy. They are happy because the APNU+AFC government has begun to move against certain public officials.Those who are happy are pleased that these persons have been sent packing from the jobs they hold. No thought is spared for the fact that most of these persons would have families to upkeep and now they are being put on the breadline. It is never nice to kick a man when he is down.
The hammer is coming down on a number of government officials. This was to be expected. When a new government takes over, the hammer always fall on persons. Many of these dismissals/sending on leave are to be expected.
But two pieces of caution are in order. Firstly things have to be done in the right way. Firstly, in one case the Georgetown Municipality sent the Town Clerk on leave. The Town Clerk’s protestations that it was only the Minister who could send her on leave were ignored. Yet in another case, another Local Government official was reportedly sent on administrative leave by the political directorate and not by her Council.
There is an important point of law at issue here. Just who is authorized to send a Local Government official on leave? Is it the political directorate or is it the Local Government organ? I trust that in both instances there will be legal challenges so that the Court can pronounce definitively on who has the authority to send someone on leave.
The sending of someone on administrative leave should be done only in certain circumstances. If for administrative reasons, someone has a great deal of accumulated leave, this may present some problems. For example, the organization may not wish the official to be away for such an extended period. That could disrupt the work of the organization. As such, the organization may ask the person to proceed on leave at a time when their absence can be better handled.
A person can also be sent on leave to facilitate an investigation. It may be felt that the presence of the person on the job may affect the integrity of the investigation and therefore that person should proceed on leave. In such cases, the leave should not be extended but just enough to facilitate the investigation. At no time should the sending off of someone on leave be used as a punitive measure.
It is also an unwritten convention that someone should at least be advised why they are being asked to proceed on leave. It is not certain if in the case of the Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Water Authority whether reasons were given for him being sent off.
Due process should at all times prevail.  If you are sending someone on leave in order to investigate a complaint, the person being sent on leave is entitled to be told of the nature of the complaint.
In that particular case, it was reported that the CEO was sent on leave by the Board. In so far as Corporations are concerned, this is the correct procedure. It is the Board and the Board alone, not any politician, who can sent the Head of a Corporation on leave.
It is now being reported in the media that the Chief Executive of Guysuco has been fired by the government which has also asked for the resignation of the members of the Board of Directors. This is back-to-front situation. If the government wants to fire the Chief Executive Office it has to be done the proper way. They have to call in the Board and instruct them to fire the CEO. When this is done, they should then tell the Board members to submit their resignations.

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