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GECOM Commissioners pocket $450,000 monthly even if they walk out of meetings
The six GECOM Commissioners with Chairperson, Retired Justice Claudette Singh (centre).
Kaieteur News – The six Commissioners at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) get approximately $450,000 after tax, as a monthly stipend for their participation at statutory meetings.
In addition, that figure remains the very same even if the Commissioners decide to absent themselves or walkout of a meeting.
The Opposition nominated Commissioners, Charles Corbin, Vincent Alexander and Desmond Trotman withdrew participation from a statutory meeting held on Tuesday over the Chair’s, Justice Ret’d Claudette Singh, reluctance to meet with Coalition heads.
Even with that, the Commissioners would still pocket that hefty sum.
Sources from within the Commission revealed that statutory meetings are held on average three times a month, but these meetings would increase as the Commission gears up for the Local Government Elections.
The issue of Commissioners being paid even after walking out of a meeting was raised before by Trade Unionist, Lincoln Lewis, who called for the practice to be stopped.
That was back in 2019 when then Opposition Commissioners, Sase Gunraj, Bibi Shadick and Robeson Benn, now Minister of Home Affairs, had a six-week run of walking out of GECOM’s weekly statutory meetings in protest of the Commission’s decision to move ahead with its house-to-house registration exercise.
“If GECOM can’t work and the commissioners breaking up meetings and walking out, then all you will have to say ‘don’t pay those people.’ I want tell you this is serious business. You can’t get one standard for the political operatives and then another standard for the man down here,” Lewis was quoted as saying in sections of the media.
The Commissioners are required to provide oversight of the elections body.
Their duties include the perusing of the reports on the works of the Commission and interviewing staff to fill vacancies, among others.
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