President David Granger yesterday appointed members of a tribunal that will determine whether embattled trade unionist Carvil Duncan ought to be removed as Chairman of the Public Service Commission.
Justice Roxane George, who will head the tribunal, and members (ret’d) Justice Winston Patterson and attorney-at-law Robert Ramcharran were sworn in to investigate whether Duncan, who is facing a decision in a court matter that accuses him of stealing monies from the Guyana Power & Light Inc (GPL), has the ability to discharge the functions of the office of Chairperson.
Following the swearing in of the three members of the tribunal, President Granger said that the establishment of the tribunal represents the commitment of his administration to due process. He said that the government is obliged, when matters are brought to its attention, to ensure that its response is not hasty, arbitrary or whimsical but rather is in keeping with the spirit and letter of the constitution.
The tribunal has up to October 31 to deliver its report to the president.
When approached by Stabroek News, Justice George said that the members were yet to receive the terms of reference and therefore she could not indicate the process the tribunal would take in completing its task.
In March, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo had written Duncan “requesting that he show cause why a tribunal should not be established, as provided for by Article 225 of the Constitution of Guyana, to address the question of his removal from the constitutional offices of Chairman of the Public Service Commission and member of the Police Service Commission and Judicial Service Commission.”
In the letter, the Prime Minister advised Duncan that the procedure had been invoked on the basis that the offences for which he has been charged, place him in a position where it was necessary for him to defend the charges before the court. He added that there was also concern that during this period Duncan would be unable to perform the duties imposed upon him by the constitution in relation to the three constitutional offices.
The letter had requested that Duncan respond within 14 days of its receipt, but no response had been received up to the time the Prime Minister’s Office made the letter public. It is not clear if Duncan responded.
Duncan is currently awaiting a decision on charges that he stole and conspired to steal from GPL, while he was a serving member of its governing board. It was alleged that he stole $984,900, and conspiring with another to steal the sum of $27,757,500, which was also property of GPL Inc. The charges against Duncan stem from payments that were made to him and to former Deputy Chief Executive Officer Aeshwar Deonarine and which were uncovered by a forensic audit that was commissioned after the APNU+AFC government entered office last year. The money allegedly stolen by Duncan represents retroactive payments for his time on the GPL Board.
Magistrate Leron Daly is set to give a decision in the case on September 23.
