Duncan faces pressure from Govt to resign

… denies receiving letter from Prime Minister

Embattled trade unionist Carvil Duncan is insisting that he never received a letter from Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo asking him to justify why a tribunal should not be established to address his removal from his post as Chairman of the Public Service Commission (PSC). This removal would automatically mean his resignation from other constitutional service commissions.
In a statement to the media on Saturday, Duncan said a senior Government official working out of the Ministry of the Presidency contacted him in February, purportedly under the instructions of the President, to discuss his resignation from the PSC, which would, by design, result in his resignation from the Judicial Service Commission and the Police Service Commission.
He claimed that during his meeting with the official, he was asked to consider a financial package that would accompany his resignation.
“My answer to him was that I had preferred to speak with the President on this matter and I then exited his office,” Duncan stated.
He detailed that shortly after, he received another call requesting his attendance at a meeting with the President that very day. The official was once again present, along with the President and another individual.
Duncan said the President insisted he tender his resignation from the constitutional service commissions.
“He then said to me as much as three times that “he does not want any blood on his carpet” forcing me to move in the direction of resigning by the deadline of March 15, 2016,” he recollected.
He said the President also offered him the financial package as was offered by the senior official if he succumbed to their desires for him to resign.
Duncan said he left the meeting with an understanding that he would return a call confirming his agreement to resign but attempts to contact the official a few days later proved futile.
“I made numerous telephone calls and left several messages with his Secretary without any response to date,” he said.
Duncan said he subsequently read a shocking report which stated that he failed to respond to a letter dispatched by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo.
Reports indicate that Nagamootoo wrote Duncan asking him to show cause why a tribunal should not be established to address the question of his removal from constitutional office.
“I had checked with both of my offices which were never in receipt of any letter sent by the Prime Minister. I also checked at the Post Office in my area which informed me that it had no outstanding mail for me. It may be opportune to note that I was also never contacted by the Prime Minister or any of his agents,” he stated.
With charges of fraud against him and a tribunal underway to determine his fate, Duncan maintained that he will not be stepping down from his posts.
“I will not resign! Because I hold a constitutional office and my term in office is set out in my mandate, the instrument given to me,” he told reporters some two weeks after a three-member tribunal was sworn-in by President Granger to investigate and recommend whether Duncan should be removed from his offices for his inability to discharge his function and/or misbehaviour.
The Commissioners comprise Chairperson Justice Roxanne George, Justice Winston Patterson and Attorney Robert Ramcharran.
Duncan was charged and placed before the courts over an alleged theft of monies from the Guyana Power and Light. He was placed on $1 million bail in February last, after he had appeared in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts charged with larceny after he pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Police alleged that on March 31, 2015 at Georgetown, he stole $984,900, property of GPL.
It is alleged that he conspired with GPL’s then Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Aeshwar Deonarine to steal $984,900, property of the power company and that he conspired with Deonarine to commit a felony, namely he conspired to steal $27,757,500, property of the utility company.