By way of a majority vote, the Board of Directors of the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) yesterday rescinded a decision to let go of the utility company’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer Renford Homer and to terminate the services of Human Resources Officer Bal Persaud, a source last evening said.
On Thursday, Homer was given written notice of the decision not to renew his contract, while Persaud was notified of the termination of his services. A source said that while Homer’s contract ended in May, Persaud’s contract had not yet expired and was due to come to an end on the 31st of December, 2019.
The notifications reportedly caught them both off guard.
This newspaper understands that the men were peeved at the way the notices were issued to them, saying that it did not follow standard operational procedures.
Chairman of the Board of the utility company Rawle Lucas, when contacted, told Stabroek News that he did not want to discuss the matter, while Homer said that he would not comment.
“I don’t want to discuss this right now,” Homer said.
But an official of GPL, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, explained that the contracts had expired “for months” and the men were working on a month-to-month basis.
The official would only say that the decision was made by management and that as with all contracts, renewals were “not automatic and are performance-based.” “It is why it says ‘subject to renewal,’” the official explained.
Both men, according to another source, had indicated to the Board their willingness to continue employment and were given oral assurances that this would be done.
The source said that a performance assessment of persons whose contracts had ended and those to come to an end soon was requested by the Chairman of the Board and it was from this report that the decision was made to terminate the services of the two men.
While the source said that majority of Board members yesterday voted for the rescinding of the decision, it was unclear what the way forward is and if the contracts will be renewed.
In June of this year, the eight member Board was installed, with Lucas as its Chairman.
The other members are Reggie Bhagwandin, Kirk Hollingsworth, Morsha Johnson-Francis, Gillian Pollard, Elena Trim, Dr. Mahender Sharma, and Komal Ramnauth.
Homer acted as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from February 2016, following the termination of services of Colin Welch, up to last year January, when Jamaican Albert Gordon was hired for the post.
Persaud faced a similar situation in 2002, when he had served at the Environmental Protection Agency. Then Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon had said that Persaud was abruptly terminated as the then PPP/C government had “lost confidence” in him.
