ERC to meet with Opposition Commissioners

GECOM discrimination
The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) will, in the new week, be meeting with the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) representatives on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) as the ERC probes allegations of employment discrimination at the elections body.

The Opposition Commissioners at GECOM wrote the ERC last month, complaining of employment discrimination after GECOM Chairman, (rt’d) Justice James Patterson, used his deciding vote to break a deadlock which saw second-ranker Roxanne Meyers being appointed Deputy Chief Elections Officer over top-ranker and former DCEO, Vishnu Persaud.
Asked about the complaint filed by the PPP Commissioners, ERC Chairman Dr John Smith told reporters at a media engagement on Saturday morning that his team will be meeting with the complainants on Monday.
“We will be meeting on Monday with Opposition Commissioners of GECOM…and whatever comes in, we’ll deal with that… [But] some matters fall under labour, and not the ERC, so we have to remind them about that,” Smith explained.
Nevertheless, the ERC Chairman posited that the task ahead is a difficult one, and after Monday’s meeting, a determination will be made as to the way forward in terms of whether there would be the need for investigative and legal inputs – resources which the ERC is now recruiting.
“We will need some help, [because] if the pie chart that I saw is authentic, we really have a problem… We have our work cut out, nothing is going to be easy, going forward. We will try our best to be fair, but it may take some time [to resolve], because problems with roots take some time to resolve,” Dr Smith outlined.
While the ERC is now putting together its resources, its Vice Chairman, Norman McLean, disclosed that the Opposition Commissioner had actually cancelled a previously scheduled meeting, thus further delaying the matter. Nevertheless, he noted that following Monday afternoon’s meeting with the PPP Commissioners, the ERC would subsequently meet the GECOM Chairman.
“We’re looking to having a fair approach to whatever [the issue] is,” McLean asserted.
The issue of Persaud being overlooked was disclosed by the PPP Commissioners, who had previously highlighted that candidates applying for posts at GECOM were being rejected or accepted based on their ethnicity and political alignment. This practice, the commissioners have said, has resulted in the Commission being staffed mainly with one ethnic group.
However, questioned by <<Guyana Times>> about the concerns of ethnic imbalance at the Commission, and the impact this could have on the public’s perception of the entity, Justice Patterson had made a point to mention that a similar situation had existed before, when Doodnauth Singh was Chairman, and most of the staff at the Commission were of Indian descent.
“I’m not concerned about any so-called ethnic imbalance… So this ethnic thing will drive us into disaster. I hate it… Be assured I’m not that sort; wrong man,” Patterson asserted.
Meanwhile, in regard to overlooking Persaud for the DCEO post, Justice Patterson had said it is his call to vote for the candidate whom he thinks is “the proper person”, and he did just that. He added that there were other issues which led to him supporting the appointment of the second highest scored candidate, an Afro-Guyanese, over Persaud, an Indo-Guyanese.
“There are other issues (regarding why Persaud was not selected), and I don’t wish to comment on them, because I don’t want to say anything that would hinder Mr. Persaud’s career, or him getting another job. So it’s my personal view, and nobody knows why in detail, but it’s easy to guess. I feel the choice is a right choice. My regime here excludes ethnicity. We want the correct person for the job, it doesn’t matter their race… I don’t look at ethnicity, I look at talent,” Justice Patterson posited.
Persaud, who had been employed as a PRO at GECOM since 2001, had acted as the DCEO within the entity since 2014. However, when his contract expired during the period when there was no Chairman at the helm of the Elections Commission, he was informed that he had to re-apply for the position.
In a subsequent interview with this newspaper, Persaud had said he is now contemplating his next step after his appointment was rejected — a move on which he opted not to share his personal thoughts or emotions. However, he did note that he has always done his work professionally, without any racial or political biases.
Caption: ERC Chairman, Dr John Smith
Pix saved in photo as Dr John Smith