Acting Chief Justice Roxane George SC has decried the failure to constitute or reconstitute the constitutional service commissions in a timely manner, calling the situation “highly unfortunate.”
“This is a disservice to the entities with which they are integrally involved, and therefore to the nation as a whole,” she asserted on Tuesday after delivering a ruling in which she affirmed appointments of the Chairpersons of the Police Service Commission and the Integrity Commission.
Her finding was that the President had meaningfully consulted with the Leader of the Opposition before making those appointments.
Following the delivery of her judgment, Justice George in a postscript said she could not end without first observing the “highly unfortunate” situation of the services commissions not being operational in a timely manner.
Noting their provision by the Constitution—Guyana’s supreme law—Chief Justice George expressed consternation with that state of affairs.
Her second observation was that the tone of engagements between Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton, who challenged the appointments, and Governance Minister Gail Teixeira left “much to be desired.”
She described it as being “confrontational.”
Parties to a consultative process, she said, must respectfully focus on what the consultation is about, and not on “peripheral and irrelevant issues.”
She said that the Constitution provides a framework, but that it is the duty-bearers who must conscientiously strive to implement it for the “good of the nation.”
The Chief Justice said that in this regard, those actors are expected to conduct themselves in a “reasonable and responsible” manner.
Referencing principles laid down in case law, she said that they ought to eschew partisanship and seek the best interests of the Republic and the Guyanese people.
Service Commissions are consistently not reconstituted in a timely manner following the expiration of their tenures.
The life of the former Police Service Commission ended on August 9th, 2021
It was not reconstituted until May of this year following the suspension of its members by President Irfaan Ali in June of last year; even before its life ended.
In her ruling on Tuesday, the Chief Justice declared the Police Service Commission reconstituted three months ago as being unlawfully composed.
She ruled that in the absence of a Chairman of the Public Service Commission, who is mandated to be a member of the Police Service Commission, this latter Commission cannot be said to have been legally set-up.
Meanwhile, the Public Service Commission which expired in 2021 as well, is yet to be reconstituted.
Additionally, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), which is critical for the appointment of new magistrates and judges, has not been reconstituted since 2017, while the judiciary continues to be hampered by a shortage of judges.
In his most recent Sunday Stabroek column, in which he criticised the failure to confirm a Chancellor and Chief Justice, former House Speaker Senior Counsel Ralph Ramkarran opined that there is no known obstacle to the appointment of the Judicial Service Commission. “This is the body that appoints magistrates, judges of the High Court and of the Court of Appeal. Currently there are eleven judges, one having recently retired. Another is due to retire shortly. The reduced complement of judges will jeopardise the great achievements which have been made recently because the large volume of litigation that inundates the High Court every day gets larger every year. For the Chief Justice to administer this volume and find judges, whose diaries are usually full, to manage this inundation, is already an impossible task. The High Court Act provides for twenty judges. So, there is a solution. But in the absence of a Judicial Service Commission, these potential solutions cannot be addressed,” he lamented.
There is no stated timeframe by which the Commissions are to be reconstituted, but given their importance, their uninterrupted continuity was envisaged so that no gap is created in their operation.
