The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has taken the decision to appoint attorney-at-law Kurt Anthony Da Silva as its Legal Officer.
The decision was taken yesterday when the Commission met for its weekly statutory meeting.
In a statement, GECOM said that Da Silva holds a Master of Laws Degree in Public Law from the University of the West Indies. He was called to the Bar in Guyana in 2017 and served as a Judicial Research Assistant for judges of the Supreme Court of Judicature.
In 2019, he moved to Trinidad where he currently serves as a Judicial Counsel for the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
“In this regard, based on his experience in both the Caribbean Court of Justice and Guyana’s High Court of researching legal issues, analyzing submissions in cases from Attorneys-at-Law, writing legal opinions for Judges and his knowledge of the new rules of procedure and the electoral laws, the Commission appointed Mr Da Silva as the Legal Officer,” GECOM said.
Da Silva was one of four attorneys interviewed for the job last week. The list also comprised attorneys at law Shareefa Parks, Kimberley Yearwood and Felicia Toby
The Commission is still looking to fill the posts of Deputy Chief Election Officer (CEO), Assistant CEO, Chief Accountant, Logistics Manager, Civic and Voter Education Manager. Those posts were advertised since early October 2021 along with that of the CEO. The process to fill the vacancy of CEO was a tedious one that ran for more than three months.
It culminated with GECOM’s former Public Relations Officer and DCEO Vishnu Persaud being appointed.
Delon Clarke, Noland Jervis, Melanie Marshall, Paul Jaisingh, Mohamed Arjoon, Neil Bacchus, Deolall Ramlall, Deodat Persaud, Natasha Grenion Dipchand, Andrea Sparman, Duarte Hetsberger and Colin April were shortlisted by the Chair to be considered for the post of ACEO.
For the post of Chief Accountant, Jaiwattie Singh, Abeossa Simon, Orlando Small, Victor Arjune and Ronald Charles have been shortlisted.
GECOM Chair retired Justice Claudette Singh had named 17 for Civic and Voter Education Manager, and 24 for Logistics Manager. Applicants for the Logistics Manager post include former acting Town Clerk for the Municipality of Georgetown, Sharon Harry-Munroe and former CEO Keith Lowenfield’s personal assistant Duarte Hetsberger. Hetsberger was recently let go from the Commission after Persaud chose another personal assistant.
However, there is some controversy surrounding the process now. GECOM has re-advertised for the post of Chief Accountant and according to sources within the Commission, this is to facilitate the application of the staff currently acting in that position.
“They have seconded an accountant from the Ministry of Finance to act as the Chief Accountant while it was vacant. Now because that person has been there, they want them to apply for the job so one side of the Commission has pushed for the re-advertisement of the job so that can be accomplished. How can this be fair to the others because we now know they will appoint the same person acting and the others won’t stand a chance,” according to Stabroek News’ source close to the Commission.
When questioned about this move, Opposition-nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander explained that the re-advertisement was a compromise but added that shortlisted persons would still be given a fair chance.
“The problem is in the advertisement we asked for people who had knowledge of public accounting and many of the people who applied do not necessarily have experience in public accounting. But I took the position that knowledge and experience are two different things and therefore if the people have knowledge that is what we advertised for but there are those people (other Commissioners) who are now saying that they don’t have experience with IFMAS/IFMIS (Integrated Financial Management Information System),” he said.
Based on the new advertisement, persons are required to have a First Degree in Accounting from a reputable and recognized institution, along with six years’ experience as a senior manager with experience in public financial management, including working knowledge of Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS) and the Financial Management Accounting Act (FMAA), financial analysis and financial accounting; Computer literacy would be advantageous.
Alexander added that he argued that IFMIS could be learned on the job but this was disagreed with.
On the preliminary shortlist are Melanie Marshall, Neil Bacchus, Mohamed Arjoon, and Deodat Persaud for the DCEO post. That is another position that has been attracting some controversy with the government side pushing for it to be re-advertised.
However, Alexander said that no decision has been taken in that regard as yet. He did acknowledge that there is a push to disregard those who have already applied for the job.
“That matter has not been finalized. There are some commissioners with specific reference to the DCEO that want it to be re-advertised. We are not in support of that and we feel that the same way in which we dealt with two candidates for the CEO similarly we can deal with two candidates for the DCEO…they have a particular objective and they work in achieving that. They may not want the person who is qualified and they want something different,” Alexander posited.
GECOM has been accused of dragging its feet in relation to filling the critical vacancies. Last Friday a meeting was scheduled for the Commission to discuss the other positions but some Opposition Commissioners did not show up resulting in the lack of a quorum.
