Suspended Chairman of the Public Ser-vice Commission (PSC) Carvil Duncan remained adamant on Thursday that he never received any correspondence from Prime Minister (PM) Moses Nagamootoo to inform him of the establishment of a tribunal to investigate whether he ought to be removed from the post.
Duncan was at the time responding to questions under cross-examination by Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams, who is representing the government. The AG is contending that Duncan did have notice of the establishment of the tribunal.
On October 12, last year, President David Granger suspended Duncan, pending the outcome of the work of a tribunal, which was set up to consider whether he should be removed from the post.
A week later, the embattled Chairman secured temporary court orders to halt the work of the tribunal. Justice Franklin Holder issued the orders based on a Notice of Motion filed on behalf of Duncan, whose lawyers argued that the Prime Minister’s advice to the President, which led to the setup of the tribunal, was unconstitutional.
Duncan’s application argues that Nagamootoo’s advice to the president was unlawful because he was never afforded the opportunity to be heard prior to the decision to move to initiate the investigation and that the setup of the tribunal was in violation of his constitutional right to the presumption of innocence.
Although Nagamootoo has claimed that Duncan was written about the tribunal in March of last year, the trade unionist has maintained that he never received any correspondence and that his requests to the Prime Minister to prove delivery had been ignored.
When the case continued on Thursday morning before Justice Holder, Duncan was extensively grilled by Williams on the mail receipt and dispatch system used by the PSC.
Duncan affirmed that the commission does have a mailing system, but said that it did not fall under the purview of the Chairman and so could not say whether it kept a record of incoming and outgoing mails.
Asked to describe the system, the witness had initially said that a record of all mail going into the Commission was computerised by the Commission’s secretary.
He, however, later said that the computerised record applied to “all mails,” with the exception of those directly addressed to him.
When asked, Duncan said, “I open all my mail,” irrespective of whether they are marked confidential, urgent or otherwise. He explained that if he is out of office, his confidential secretary would leave mail on his desk, where he can see them.
Responding to follow-up questions from Williams, Duncan said that once his secretary would have handed over his urgent and confidential mail, he immediately reads it in her presence.
He said that thereafter, depending on the nature of the correspondence, he would either send the letter to Secretary of the Commission, or to his personal assistant who would then file away the actual letter.
Williams asked the witness if after receiving every letter, he “stops whatever he’s doing,” and reads the correspondence. He said yes.
The AG suggested to Duncan that he did receive the letter from Prime Minister (PM) Nagamootoo, dated March 29th, 2016 in which he was asked to show cause why the PM should not advise the President to establish a tribunal to look into the question of his removal from the PSC.
“I did not receive any such letter from the Prime Minister reflecting that,” Duncan firmly maintained.
Williams went on to suggest that Duncan had also received a letter from the PM, asking him to respond in 14 days after receipt, regarding the setting-up of the tribunal. Again, the witness was adamant that he never received any such correspondence from the Prime Minister.
It was also put to Duncan that the latter correspondence was signed for, after arriving at the Commission’s Secretariat, by office assistant of the PSC Kevin Raymond. The witness, however, said that while he knows Raymond, he does not know of him receiving any such mail which was delivered to the Commission.
Williams was successful in his application for the record of incoming mail to the Commission, beginning on April 13th, 2016 and ending on April 15, 2016, to be produced to the court when the case continues on March 23rd.
Duncan is represented by attorneys Anil Nandlall and Satesh Satram
In the order which Duncan had secured to halt the work of the tribunal, Justice Holder issued an order directed to Nagamootoo “quashing his advice tendered to the President on or about the 14th day of September, 2016, pursuant to Article 225 (4) of the Constitution that the question of removing the Applicant from office as a member and chairman of the Public Service Commission, Judicial Service Commission and the Police Service Commission, ought to be investigated, on the grounds that the said advice was tendered unconstitutionally, unlawfully, illegally, prematurely, prejudicially, contrary to the rules of natural justice, arbitrarily, capriciously and in breach of the Applicant’s legitimate expectation and is null, void and of no effect, unless sufficient cause is shown why the Order of Rule Nisi of Certiorari should not be made absolute.”
It was also ordered that the tribunal and each of the members appointed be prohibited from proceeding to investigate Duncan’s removal from offices.
A statement from the Ministry of the Presidency had said that President Granger suspended Duncan with immediate effect, acting in accordance with Article 225 (6) of the Constitution, pending the outcome of the proceedings of the tribunal.
Duncan has alleged that he was offered a “financial package” in exchange for his resignation. Minister of State Joseph Harmon has categorically denied Duncan’s assertion, while saying that both he and the president had met with Duncan in an effort to have him voluntarily vacate the constitutional positions he holds, since it was undesirable for someone facing criminal charges to hold those positions.
At that time, Duncan was before the court on fraud charges after it was discovered by auditors that he paid himself approximately $1M and allegedly conspired with the former Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO) of the Guyana Power and Light, Aeshwar Deonarine, for an unapproved transfer of approximately $27M into the latter’s personal account.
In early November, last year, Duncan was acquitted of the charge that he conspired to steal $984,900, from the power company. He, however, still faces the conspiracy charge.
