Dear Editor,
It continues to puzzle how continuously, befuddled eminent counsel across the political governance spectrum would insist on making pronouncements uninformed by the very constitution which permits their existence.
The instant case involves the Public Service Commission, whose role must have been at the heart of the very CoI Report, which was so acclaimed, to the total exclusion of reference to the Police Service Commission.
The simple, but fundamental fact is that they are two totally disaggregated constitutional agencies, and yet almost robotically, the sleight of hand effected by the ruling party of 23 years, of conjoining their memberships into one illegal Public and Police Service Commission, continues to elude the blind who, as they say, would not see.
However, the following related articles have been extracted from the Constitution of Guyana to be put in plain sight:
Public Service Commission
166/167 200 (1) The Public Service Commission shall consist of six members who shall be appointed as follows, that is to say-
(a) three members appointed by the President acting after meaningful consultation with the Leader of the Opposition;
(b) two members appointed by the President upon nomination by the National Assembly after it has consulted such bodies as appear to it to represent public officers or classes of public officers; and
(c) if the President thinks fit, one other member appointed by the President acting in accordance with his own deliberate judgment:
Provided that a person shall be disqualified for appointment as a member of the Commission if he is a public officer.
166/167 200 (2) The Chairperson and the Deputy Chairperson of the Commission shall be elected by and from the members of the Commission using such consensual mechanism as the Commission deems fit.
Police Service Commission
- 210 (1) The Police Service Commission shall consist of –
(a) a Chairman appointed by the President acting after meaningful consultation with the Leader of the Opposition from among members appointed under sub-paragraph (c);
(b) the Chairman of the Public Service Commission;
(c) four members appointed by the President upon nomination by the National Assembly after it has consulted such bodies as appear to it to represent the majority of the members of the Police Force and any other such body it deems fit:
Provided that a person should be disqualified for appointment as a member of the Commission if he is a public officer.
Unfortunately, it would be that the purported beneficiaries of the latter Commission are too unaware of their rights to be represented (free of dictation) as law enforcement officers.
What a conundrum is the aforesaid governance/leadership model.
Yours faithfully,
EB John
