GPSU President Patrick Yarde says he wrote to President Bharrat Jagdeo on December 24 to request, once again, the “timely and long overdue appointment of the constitutionally established Public Service Appellate Tribunal.”
According to a press release Yarde said he is requesting that Jagdeo initiate urgent action to correct this unsatisfactory situation. The Tribunal has been non-functional since the resignation, in 2004, of the government’s nominee George Fung-on, a press release from the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) said. Fung-on has since passed away. Urgent action would be a move in the direction of making the rule of law and democracy consistent features of governance in Guyana, the release said.
The union last wrote to the president on this issue on October 25, 2005, it said, “but received no positive or conclusive response.” Consequently, it said, public officers are denied the right to have their grievances with decisions of the Public Service Commission redressed, which is in breach of the constitution intended for their protection. The GPSU pointed out that it was at its insistence that the Tribunal was established in 1984. Further, it said, it is concerned that public workers who fall under the jurisdiction of the Tribunal; the wider public and the Union itself have not extended to them “even the courtesy of an explanation for the failure to establish and activate this crucial constitution tribunal.”
The GPSU said it has conveyed to the president its doubts regarding the government’s claims to working class credentials. The union is also of the view that significant elements of government are obstructing the appointment of a Tribunal so that they could freely and uninterruptedly proceed with the politicising of the public service in conflict with the Constitution and the understanding between the Inter-American Development Bank, the union and the government for the modernization of the public service.
