Prime Minister Mark Phillips has asked all five members of the Police Service Commission (PSC) to “show cause” why an investigation towards their removal should not be set in motion as a result of them joining a lawsuit mounted by an opposition parliamentarian over budgets of constitutional bodies.
“It has been brought to my attention that you have joined Opposition Member[s] of Parliament …against the Government of Guyana and various other parties in High Court Action No. 2021- HC-DEM-CIV-FDA-239, which matter is pending. The Commission and its members are named as Applicants in the proceedings… from all indications, the case has political overtones and has the appearance of a political contest between the Government and the Opposition,” Phillips wrote to PSC Chair Paul Slowe in a letter, which was seen by Stabroek News.
Phillips stressed that since the Constitution provides that the Commission and its members must be free from actual, or perceived political bias, influence and interference and must at all times appear to be independent, impartial and autonomous, their joinder in the legal proceedings renders the Commission in breach of those constitutional duties. “Indeed both the public and members of the Guyana Police Force have complained that you are no longer perceived to be free from political bias, impartial, independent and autonomous,” Phillips claimed.
As a result, he asked that Slowe show cause why he should not advise the President that his removal as PSC Chairman be investigated.
Similar letters, also dated June 1, have been sent to Slowe, Conway, Michael Somersall, Vesta Adams and Clair Jervis. They have been given until June 8 to respond.
This is the second such letter from Phillips to Slowe. Last week Phillips had demanded the both Slowe and fellow PSC member Clinton Conway show cause why the charges of fraud recently leveled against them should not result in their removal from the Commission. The two men have since replied via an extensive dossier, which includes allegations that President Irfaan Ali attempted to interfere in the functioning of the Commission. Ali has denied these allegations.
In a statement acknowledging receipt of the letter, Slowe’s lawyer, Selwyn Pieters, said the latest accusation is misplaced and smacks of an abuse of state and executive powers.
“It may amount to political persecution, which my client referred to in his press conference on Monday May 31, 2021, and the weaponising of Article 225 of the Constitution against Paul E. Slowe,” Pieters contended.
He maintained that clients, including constitutional agencies, are entitled to take action against the executive, through the Attorney General of Guyana.
He further noted that any constitutional agency can seek redress from the court to adjudicate issues that goes to the core of its mandate. Clients are entitled to hire attorneys of their choosing, he said, before adding that if the attorney is in a perceived or actual conflict of interest, professionalism and professional conduct will necessitate the Attorney not taking on the file or representing a particular client or entity on a joint retainer.
He also questioned the reason for this new request to show cause mere days after the first request, to which his client has just responded.
“The tenure of the Police Service Commission ends in August 2021. Are these show cause notices aimed at hectoring and bullying the Chairman and Commissioners? Will the government be indemnifying the Commissioners for the significant time, efforts and legal fees involved in dealing with these show cause matters? Why is there a need to send a second show cause notice, one week after the first one, and without even a response being provided to the material responsive to the first?” he questioned.
Phillips has claimed that because the Commission is a party to the case initially filed by APNU+AFC Member of Parliament Ganesh Mahipaul, “the public perception is that [they] have abandoned all appearances of impartiality and have joined forces with the Opposition politicians to engage in an open, partisan, political contest with the Government.”
The case in question was filed by Mahipaul, who sought to have the court declare that constitutional agencies are entitled to operate and function free of the exercise of any control by the Executive or any other entity by virtue of Article 122 of the Constitution.
Mahipaul asked the court to declare that the inclusion of the constitutional agencies as budget agencies in the Schedule to and under the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMAA) is inconsistent with the independence assured to those constitutional agencies.
The matter was dismissed by the Court on the grounds that they had been overtaken by event and therefore spent before the March 8 hearing.
The judge agreed with the argument presented by Attorney General Anil Nandlall that the orders sought by Mahipaul had been overtaken due to the fact that the Appropriation Act was passed only the day before, and the Finance Minister had likely already begun the process of effecting disbursements during Parliamentary sittings, where the 2021 National Budget was debated and also subsequently passed—all ahead of the court hearing.
The matter is currently being appealed.
In addition to Mahipaul the other applicants in the action were Coretta Mc Donald, General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers’ Union; Dawn Gardener, First Vice President of the Guyana Public Service Union; Sommersaul, Chairman of the Public Service Commission; Clinton Conway, Member of the Police Service Commission; and Allan Munroe, Chairman of the Teaching Service Commission.
They were all represented by opposition MPs Roysdale Forde SC, Khemraj Ramjattan, Raphael Trotman, Geeta Chandan-Edmond and Amanza Walton-Desir.
