Members of the Public Service Commission with President Bharrat Jagdeo (third from right) and Leader of the Opposition Robert Corbin (third from left), shortly after taking their oath of office yesterday at the Office of the President. They are from left
Members of the first of four service commissions which have been out of operation since December 31, 2001, due to the political deadlock, were sworn in yesterday.
The six members of the Public Service Commission (PSC) took their oath of office yesterday before President Bharrat Jagdeo at the Office of the President and a number of government officials and representatives of parliamentary political parties.
It is expected that this will swiftly lead to the constitution of the Police Service and Judicial Service Commissions on which the Chairman of the PSC is required to sit.
The six, in order of how they took their oath are: former Public Service Minister, George Clarence Fung-On; former Permanent Secretary, Public Service Ministry, John Sidney Milton Worrell; businessman, David Augustus Yhann Jnr; veteran trade union activist, Leslie David Melville; Chief Medical Officer, Guysuco, Dr Kissoon and former SIMAP Executive Director, Harrinarine Naw-batt. Fung-On, who was a member of the Public Service Appellate Tribunal, resigned from that body last week, according to a source at the Office of the President. The National Assembly nominated Melville, who is the nominee of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) and Dr Kissoon, the nominee of the Public Service Senior Staff Association (PSSSA), for appointment after consulting with the GPSU, the PSSSA, and the Federated Unions of Government Employees (FUGE).
The president appointed Fung-On, Worrell and Yhann after "meaningful consultations" with the Leader of the Opposition, Robert Corbin, and Nawbatt, as he is permitted to do under article 200(1)(b) of the constitution.
No name of any woman surfaced for consideration in the appointment either in the consultation process between the President and the Leader of the Opposition and that between the National Assembly and the unions representing the members of the Public Service. Most of the members of the Public Service are women.
The reconstitution of the commission returns to public servants the constitutionally- designated body empowered to deal with appointments, transfers, promotions and disciplinary issues.
The establishment of the PSC and the election of a chairman whom the members will elect from among themselves at their first meeting - expected to be convened early next week - will pave the way for the constitution of the Police Service and Judicial Service Commissions. The PSC chairman is required by the constitution to be a member of both commissions. The two commissions cannot be properly constituted in the absence of the PSC chairman. The Teaching Service Commission, on which the PSC chairman does not sit, is expected to be established shortly after the president consults with the Leader of the Opposition on the appointment of three members he appoints under article 207(2)(c) of the constitution.
Among those who witnessed the event were the Leader of the Opposition, Robert Corbin;, Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran SC; Public Service Minister, Dr Jennifer Westford; Opposition parliamentarians Vincent Alexander and James McAllister of the PNCR and Sheila Holder of the GAP/WPA. The Permanent Secretary, Public Service Ministry and Head of the Public Service, Dr Nanda Kishore Gopaul and the Permanent Secretary, Office of the President, Jennifer Webster also witnessed the event, as did Guyana Public Service Union president Patrick Yarde and president of the Guyana Trades Union Congress, Carvil Duncan.
Speaking with Stabroek News after the ceremony, Yarde regretted that what should have been a very happy day had been "adulterated by the swearing in of a representative of a phantom union (PSSSA)." The GPSU questions the legitimacy of the PSSSA which is made up of permanent secretaries, deputy permanent secretaries and heads of government departments and was formed at the instigation of the Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon when he held the position of the Head of the Public Service. Dr Kissoon, the PSSSA nominee, is a Soviet-trained doctor who worked for three years with the Ministry of Health at the Georgetown Hospital after completing his studies in 1988 before joining GUYSUCO. He hails from Cullen on the Essequibo Coast.
Gopaul told reporters that with the constitution of the commission, the pressure on his ministry would be eased as in its absence, it had been burdened with a number of requests for employment and called on to address issues of back pay and allowances.