Since the last Ombudsman, Justice Shaik Y. Mohamed, demitted office a few years ago, another one has not been appointed.
However, the government has continued its budgetary allocation to the Office of the Ombudsman even though the clerical staff have been redeployed over the past two years.
Stabroek News was been unable to confirm the date the last Ombudsman officially demitted office, but records indicate that he did so early in 2005. Neverthe-less, budgetary allocations to the office of the Ombudsman over the past three years were $42 million for current expenditure.
Some $14.1 million were allocated for the Office of the Ombudsman for administrative purposes, under current and capital expenditures. This catered for eight employees, but two vacancies were not filled, including that of the Ombudsman.
Stabroek News understands that the last three remaining clerical staff were reassigned to the Public Service Ministry and the Ministry of Health last year.
The Office of the Ombudsman remains closed at 39 Brickdam, Georgetown but the signs are still on the notice board outside the building as well as on the several office spaces in the building. The building also houses the Land Court.
Co-Chairman of the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) Mike McCormack said the GHRA’s concern with the closure of the Office of the Ombudsman was that it was yet another channel that was not available to citizens to deal with the concerns about public office holders.
The Office of the Ombudsman, he said, should have been complementing the work of the Ethnic Relations Commission and the rights commissions, which are other constitutional bodies that need to be formally established.
Rather than the government establishing the constitutional bodies “and multiply[ing] the opportunities for citizens to air their grievances and injustices and seek redress,” he said, “we appear to be in a process of attrition