Opposition-nominated member of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Sase Gunraj is calling for members of the secretariat to face penalties after they failed to co-operate with a recent investigation by the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) into the hiring practices at GECOM.
Following yesterday’s statutory meeting Gunraj told reporters that his issue with the report which was tabled in Parliament earlier this month is not its findings but comments which indicate that staff members failed to provide information both as promised to and as requested by the ERC.
He noted specifically that Chairman of GECOM, retired Justice James Patterson claimed that statements in the report which said he did not provide information were inaccurate because “in truth and in fact he had given instructions to staff members of the commission to provide those reports.”
“I’m curious as to why an instruction given by the Chairman pursuant to an undertaking he gave to a constitutional body was fragrantly disobeyed,” Gunraj said.
His colleague Robeson Benn went on step further and claimed that the work of the ERC was undermined “by no other person than the Chairman of the commission who promised to provide documentation and didn’t.”
He concluded that based on the failure of the chairman and other members of staff to participate in the investigation “issues remain unresolved.”
Gunraj further explained that in light of the Chairman’s claim as well as the statement by the ERC that the Human Resource (HR) Manager failed to appear, a proposal was made for the matter to be dealt with by the Administration and Finance committee which deals with HR matters while a second proposal was made to have the matter further discussed at the level of the commission.
No decision was taken as to which of these proposals will be implemented.
“I’m of the firm view that penalties should be (attached) for failure to comply,” Gunraj concluded.
According to the ERC report first made public on March 19 Deputy Chief Election Officer (DCEO) Roxanne Myers and Human Resources Manager Marcia Crawford did not respond to requests to be interviewed, while Patterson failed to provide promised documentation that he claimed informed his decision to use his casting vote to appoint Myers.
It describes these actions on the part of the three individuals as “deliberate and willful.”
“Their refusal to assist the enquiry by their preference or by written submissions amounted to a deliberate hobbling of the sub-committee in the production of an informed report,” the committee stressed, before adding that it can also be seen as them “putting their own personal interest above their public duty.”
Yesterday, Government-nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander was at pains to indicate that the report concluded that there was no ethnic bias in the employment of Myers.
He told reporters that while the three-hour-long meeting led to no decisions on any matter the ERC report was entered into record and may come up for discussion as matter arising from the minutes at next week’s meeting.
According to Alexander, Commissioner Benn who was the most vocal on the contents of the report called for matters which were obiter dictum or incidental to the report to be addressed.
One such matter included a possible interaction and compromise with former DCEO Vishnu Persaud
Alexander dismissed this suggestion as ludicrous stating that the report was unequivocal in its conclusion that it found no evidence of ethnic bias in hiring of Meyers as DCEO.
“That is the core of the report,” Alexander stressed adding that a suggestion that Persaud be “assuaged” by employment in another position at the commission was similarly dismissed.
Gunraj however indicated that his view was that anyone who has had the benefit of the experience and training that Persaud had should be an asset which the commission should be willing to use when and if it is made available.
A four-month inquiry into the hiring practices at GECOM which ended on November 28th, 2018, saw several persons being interviewed, including the current and former Chairman of GECOM, Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield, Persaud and all six commissioners.
It concluded that there was no evidence of any particular ethnicity being given preferential treatment but qualified the finding by saying the Human Resources Manager’s refusal to cooperate did not allow for extensive deliberations to arrive at a more informed conclusion.
The probe which also focused on the controversial appointment of Myers to the post of Deputy Chief Election Officer and found that by all objective criteria and available evidence, the other candidate for the post, Persaud, was the most qualified and that he was the first candidate in the history of GECOM who obtained the highest score and had not been appointed. That being said, it also noted that there was no evidence ethnicity played any role in Myers’ appointment.
According to the ERC the refusal of Myers, Crawford and Patterson “to assist the enquiry by their presence or by written submissions amounted to a deliberate hobbling of the sub-committee in the production of an informed report.”
The committee further stressed that their action can also be seen as them “putting their own personal interest above their public duty.”
Specifically the failure of Crawford to assist in the investigation is cited as having prevented the Sub-committee from adequately examining and assessing the allegation of ethnic imbalance that formed part of the complaint concerning employment practices and as well as the allegation of discriminatory employment practices prior to and post November 2017.
