Minister of Education Dr Rupert Roopnaraine has said that appointments to the posts of Directors of Youth and Sport will come only after consultations with various stakeholders have been concluded.
It had been previously reported that A Partnership for Unity member Christopher Jones and Alliance for Change member Trevor Williams had been appointed to the posts of Director of Sports and Director of Youth respectively. These posts exist within the Department of Culture, Youth and Sports which is part of the Ministry of Education.
However once these ‘appointments’ were announced questions were raised about the process which was used to select persons for the posts.
In a press statement on Saturday the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) raised concerns about the nature of Williams’s appointment. The release stated that the “PPP continue[d] to view with deep concern the usurpation of functions of independent constitutional bodies, gross violations of the constitution of Guyana and the trampling of workers’ rights by the new de-facto administration.” The party said it was “aware that the Public Service Commission only recently conducted interviews with a view of hiring qualified persons to fill certain vacancies in the public sector, including the Director of Youth position. Trevor Williams, an AFC executive member, has been handpicked and appointed to this position not by the Public Service Commission but by the political directorate.”
Yesterday the opposition further challenged Williams’s supposed appointment when an executive member of its youth arm the Progressive Youth Organisation (PYO) mounted a legal challenge.
Saleesha Gafoor who is being represented by Attorney Anil Nandlall is reportedly challenging the supposed appointment on the grounds that Williams was not appointed through the Public Service Commission and second that he is not qualified to hold the post.
Previous advertisement for the post of Director of Youth had called for applicants to possess a minimum of a Master’s Degree in a Social Science with a minimum of two years in youth work or a Bachelor’s Degree in a Social Science with a minimum of three years in youth work. The matter of the appointments was further complicated when the Junior Education Minister Nicolette Henry who oversees the operations of the department told reporters that Williams had not been appointed to the post. Henry according to a Government Information Agency (GINA) release said that “Williams is being considered” for the post while “Christopher Jones has been appointed Director of Sports.”
In an invited comment, Roopnaraine said that these posts are still vacant. The Director of Youth, he said, must be appointed by the Public Service Commission, while the Director of Sport will be appointed by the Sports Commission.
However, this will not happen before the minister has had “full consultation with the representatives of youth including the Guyana National Youth Council [GNYC] so that those persons once appointed will have their full support.”
He stressed that these appointments “will be the fruit of the most thorough consultation possible which will take more time but it is [he] believes a better way to do it.”
