Government is set to soon commence engagement with Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo for the selection of a new Ombudsman, following the death of Justice Winston Moore last month.
“It requires a process of consultation… and we will engage in that process very soon. We have already started a process of looking at names and things like that,” Minister of State Joseph Harmon told Stabroek News, when asked for an update.
After this country had been without an Ombudsman for more than 10 years, Moore was selected and sworn in by former president Donald Ramotar on January 13, 2014. But Moore died last month, after battling with cancer for a while.
During his tenure, he had investigated numerous complaints made against persons in public office. Among his notable pronouncements was the case of the firing and prosecution of managers over a $69 million fraud at the New Building Society (NBS).
He had concluded that the three senior NBS managers, who were fired after being implicated in the fraud, which was committed in 2006, had suffered a “grave injustice” as there was insufficient evidence to suggest they were guilty, let alone to successfully prosecute them.
Based on a complaint received in January 2014 from former director of NBS Maurice Arjoon, Moore had launched an investigation. His focus was on persons who Arjoon had implicated and the NBS Board, which had fired him six months before he was to retire. Moore made his findings known in November of that year. The report of Moore’s findings is currently with government but to date no decision has been made as it pertains to righting the injustice meted out to Arjoon, former assistant mortgage manager Kissoon Baldeo and former operations manager Kent Vincent, who had been charged and placed before the court only to have the charges dismissed after the case had dragged on for years.
Article 192 (1) of the Constitution says “Subject to the provisions of this article, the Ombudsman may investigate any action taken by any department of Government or by any other authority to which this article applies, or by the President, Ministers, officers or members of such a department or authority, being action taken in the exercise of the administrative functions of that department or authority.”
The Minister of State also informed that government is also looking at filling other constitutional offices but the appointment of an Ombudsman was most pressing.
“We need an Ombudsman. There are several other constitutional offices that has to be filled and we will ensure that they are all filled, but certainly the ombudsman has died and we have to engage with the leader of the opposition to get a new one soon,” the Minister of State noted. Currently there is no Human Rights Commission, Ethic Relations Commission or the statutory Integrity Commission that is prescribed for by law.
In addition, with the recent establishment of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC), there will have to be the setting up of the Public Procurement Appellate Tribunal, as set out in the Procurement Act of Guyana.
Article 212 EE of the constitution states that parliament is vested with a responsibility of establishing a Public Procurement Commission Tribunal (PPCT) and any person that is aggrieved by a ruling of the PPC has a right to appeal that decision to the PPCT. If they are dissatisfied then they can appeal the tribunal’s ruling to the Court of Appeal.
