Dear Editor,
On Monday a colleague sent me an email with the subject ‘Proclamation’ and directing me to the website of the Official Gazette at http://officialgazette.gov.gy/. On going to the site I found Legal Supplement B of the Official Gazette which contains two proclamations signed by Dr Roger Luncheon setting May 11, 2015 as the date for the elections of the members of the National Assembly and the Regional Democratic Councils.
The date of the Gazette is shown as 24th January, 2015 which was surprising enough to cause me to do some checking. On further examination I realised that the Gazette was posted up late afternoon of February 9. To satisfy myself further I checked with the Law Library, the Registrar of the Supreme Court and the Parliament Library early today (10th February) and learnt that none of those key government offices had a copy of a Gazette Legal Supplement B bearing the date January 24.
I then checked with the Office of the President where I learnt that the impugned Gazette was delivered to them yesterday February 10. Clearly the Gazette containing the two Proclamations was backdated for reasons known only to the President, Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Mr Anil Nandlall, whose face adorns the Official Gazette page. That this was obviously backdating is also evident from the fact that the Legal Supplement B of the Gazette of January 24 appears at the top of the page after the Official Gazette of January 31 and February 7.
With this kind of conduct and ethical behaviour, we should not be surprised at the state of our country.
Meanwhile the proclamations dissolving the Parliament and the Regional Democratic Councils have still not been published.
Yours faithfully,
Christopher Ram
