Latest update January 23rd, 2025 7:40 AM
Gov’t Commissioners trying to prevent review of ERC report on GECOM hiring practices – Robeson Benn
People Progressive Party, Civic (PPP/C) executive and Guyana Elections Commission, (GECOM) Commissioner Robeson Benn, is accusing the Government-aligned Commissioners of deliberately working to prevent the review of the report by the Ethnic Relations Comm
Robeson Benn
ission, (ERC) in relation to the hiring practices of the (GECOM).
The Party had expressed dissatisfaction in the probe citing the “non-appearances” of three key persons named by the sub-committee in the report.
Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Roxanne Myers; Human Resources Manager, Marcia Crawford; and GECOM Chairman, Justice James Patterson who, according to the report, failed to produce documents concerning the alleged “shiftiness” of Vishnu Persaud, the person, who Myers was chosen over for Deputy Chief Elections Officer.
The three persons (Myers, Crawford and Patterson) reportedly were required to and had promised to make available the necessary information, and the report stated that the failure to cooperate with the investigation couldn’t be anything other than deliberate and willful.
The PPP Commissioners had therefore claimed that the work of the ERC– for the true intent and results of the report – were sabotaged.
As such, GECOM’s Opposition representatives are calling for a review of the report presented by the ERC. However, following yet another statutory meeting of the Commissioners yesterday, Benn again brought accusations against the Government side.
This time, he says that “the Government‘s agents are trying to prevent a review of the report” by the sub-committee.
“There is obviously an interest in burying the report and making sure it does not meet the sub-committee for re-examination,” Benn said.
He noted too that the objective of the PPP is to ensure that a fair investigation is conducted to arrive at the correct conclusion.
“As it stands, key elements were missing from the ERC’s case, so there’s no way they could have arrived at the correct determination. If we don’t get a proper investigation and report, we can’t make an adequate determination to prevent discrimination and ensure that GECOM’s hiring practices are in keeping with people’s fundamental rights.”
The ERC had ruled in a complaint filed by the Opposition asking for an investigation surrounding the hiring practices of the former Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO), Vishnu Persaud.
Persaud was one of the candidates applying for the position; he had scored higher than Roxanne Myers during the interviewing process.
Myers was however selected for the job after the Commission’s Chairman cast the deciding vote in her favour.
The ERC report noted that, “by all objective criteria, Mr. Persaud was, on the available evidence, the most qualified candidate for appointment to the position of DCEO”.
It was pointed out that the vote of the Chairman to break a voting deadlock happened only once before in GECOM.
“By long established practice, the candidate acquiring the highest score secured the appointment. Save and except for the case of Mr. Gocool Boodoo, all appointments were made upon the unanimous vote of all of the Commissioners,” the report said.
In released excerpts of the final report by ERC, it was disclosed “in all other cases, the appointments were made following a consensus between all of the Commissioners: that is to say the three Commissioners appointed by the President acting in his own deliberate judgment together with the three Commissioners appointed by the President acting in accordance with the advice of the Leader of the Opposition”.
The ERC said that Persaud whose contract was not renewed a few years ago as CEO, was the first candidate in the history of GECOM who had obtained the highest score and had not been appointed.
“Because of the way that our population is distributed over the country, it is inevitable that in some areas where there is a preponderance of Guyanese of a given ethnicity, there is likely to be a majority of employees in those areas of the majority ethnicity.”
ERC found that there are no institutional rules or practices in GECOM, which allows for ethnic discrimination in hiring. “In fact, at GECOM, there are people who are vigilant enough,” the report said.
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