Dear Editor,
How things have changed since I started practice so many years ago, when lawyers sensing some kind of lawlessness would, without being retained, of their own accord file an application to the court for a ruling as to whether what they perceived to be a wrong was legal or not.
Take, for example, what I call consider to be illegal rubbish, namely, this GRA polygraph testing of its employees and the subsequent firing of employees who fail the test. These are employees who have not been accused of, or found guilty of any matter related to the execution of their job, and of course suffer the complete ruining of their character and any work potential.
Editor, may I draw the attention of my colleagues out there to the provision of the Justices Protection Act Cap 5:07 of the Laws of Guyana, which provides that any action against the government “shall not be commenced against the Justice until one calendar month at least after notice in writing of the intended action has been delivered to him” (Sect 8(2)); and “No action shall be brought against a justice… unless the action is commenced within six calendar months after the act complained of has been committed” (Sect 8(1)).
Editor, I hope that by this letter some enterprising lawyer out there will jump at the opportunity to challenge the legality of these tests ‒ voluntary or not ‒ even pro bono, and that those so egregiously wronged would seek legal redress before it is too late.
As an afterthought Editor, I wonder who in Guyana has the necessary expertise or equipment to carry out the polygraph test, a test that is so unreliable that nowhere in the civilised world is it approved for use in a court of law, and whether the results of these tests will be available for scrutiny if challenged.
Yours faithfully,
Randolph Joseph Eleazar
