Dear Editor,
Guyana must be a joke to the rest of the world where professionalism is expected and more and more is demanded. In Guyana little is expected and less is demanded. I read with concern but not surprise that the Chairwoman of GECOM had voted with the Government representatives on the Commission to deny a common human resource practice that is, having an independent third party shortlist the applicants for vacant positions.
In Guyana where every decision is seen through partisan political eyes this would have been a very good opportunity to assemble a team of three or five Human Resources professionals to review all resumes of qualified applicants, interview and furnish the Commission with those shortlisted, and explanations for those not selected.
One would have thought that we are long removed from 1978 and another Justice, Harold Bollers, during whose tenure the elections body was directed by political forces. The Electoral Commission was described then as a toothless puddle by external observers after the 1978 referendum. Who would imagine that we are there again? Of course the Carter Formula, instituted in the 1990s was intended to have corrected those shortcomings. But, this is Guyana, and it seems that both the political titans mimic each other in electoral hegemony and control of instruments like GEOCOM.
Sincerely,
Keith Branch
