Govt to challenge High Court ruling on suspension of PSC – AG Nandlall

Following the ruling of High Court Judge Gino Persaud that President Dr Irfaan Ali acted unconstitutionally when he suspected the previous Police Service Commission (PSC), Attorney General Anil Nandlall has confirmed that the ruling will be challenged.

The President suspended PSC Chairman Paul Slowe and Commissioner Clinton Conway in June 2021 after they were charged with attempts to defraud the Guyana Police Force (GPF) of $10 million.
Two years after Slowe filed judicial review proceedings against the President’s decision, High Court Judge Gino Persaud on Friday ruled that the suspension of the commission was unconstitutional.
However, Nandlall stands with the President’s decision, highlighting several instances where the PSC demonstrated biases and impartiality.
For one, Slowe and the PSC’s decision to challenge the legality of the budget passed after the March 2020 elections, Nandlall said, was a choice to align itself with a group of politicians in a politically inspired litigation.
“In my view, that apparent independent organisation [PSC] decided to shed its independence and to take a political alignment, disqualifying itself from holding an office which requires independence and political neutrality,” Nandlall said.
Additionally, the Attorney General explained that there have been several instances of Police officers challenging the manner in which the PSC handled appointments of new members and other officers.

“[Several Police officers] were claiming that they were bypassed for promotions and there were disciplinary charges instituted against them which were deliberately not being heard by the very PSC so as to keep them from being promoted,” Nandlall related.
“It’s alleged by Police officers that [appointment] procedures were abrogated by the PSC and they were moving at breakneck speed to promote one set of officers, disregarding others who felt they were deserving of promotions and at the same time, violating the procedure by which these Police officers have to travel before they reach the PSC for promotion.”
It is against that backdrop that the President intervened, Nandlall said, adding that the issue arose when the Head of State noticed the absence of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and subsequent inability to establish a tribunal to investigate the matter.

“What the President did in the exercise of his executive power and his deliberate judgement and because there was no JSC to whom he could’ve turned to establish the tribunal [the next step was to] proceed to exercise this power, which he has, to suspend the PSC,” Nandlall expressed.
Aiming to file the appeal early next week, the Attorney General is confident of the Government’s success, adding that this case brings to question several constitutional issues: the behavioural conduct of a PSC, the type of posture it can take in respect to political matters, the decorum of members of such an organisation and what a President should do when you have JSC that is vacant and you have to establish a tribunal or exercise a power of suspension.