…PPP failed to provide evidence to support claims
THE Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) has concluded that there is no evidence to support that racial bias was involved in the appointment of Roxanne Myers as Deputy Chief Election Officer (DCEO) at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

The report on an eight-month investigation by the ERC’s Sub-Committee was presented to the media by the full Commission on Monday at its head office. The investigation came following the 13 July, 2018 request of Opposition-nominated Commissioners Bibi Shadick, Sase Gunraj and Robeson Benn, to conduct an inquiry into the practice of GECOM regarding the appointment of Myers.

At the time, both Myers and former GECOM DCEO, Vishnu Persaud, were contending for the position and although the latter scored higher marks at the interview, Myers was ultimately granted the position.
The report noted that it was the first time, under the commission, that a candidate with a lower score secured a position, but also detailed the reasoning provided for such. The interviewing panel in reference consisted of two government-appointed Commissioners and two Opposition-appointed Commissioners.

During the interviews, they were guided by a score sheet with questions allotted a scale of quantitative scores for which Persaud received 76 points and Myers, 72.

However, Persaud’s character was a matter of contention which saw the interviewing panel taking their disagreements to the full GECOM Commission where a vote of 3-4 broken by the Chairman saw Myers being appointed. Noting the single instance in which he had cause to cast his vote in an employment-related matter, former GECOM Chair, Dr Steve Surujbally said it was in relation to the renewal of Gocool Boodhoo’s contract as CEO.

According to the report, “work-related performances and questionable integrity” were critical factors that had informed his decision.
Surujbally served the Commission from 2000 to 2017 and when questioned on Persaud, described him as an “excellent scribe for the Commission for 12 years” and as having “wisdom and honesty”.

Persaud first met Surujbally when they both worked at the Ministry of Agriculture. Prior to being appointed as GECOM’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) in 2001, he had no formal education in the post but due to him having worked with Surujbally at the ministry in a similar capacity, his appointment was “initiated by Surujbally” and approved by GECOM.
During his time there, he also functioned as the fulltime Personal Assistant (PA) of Surujbally; as Logistics Manager in 2004; led the civic and voter education programme in 2006 and applied for and secured the position as DCEO in March 2014.

When his contract expired, Persaud reapplied for the position but lost out to Myers. Questioned as to whether he believed ethnicity was a factor, Persaud said in the report: “I don’t think so”.
Relaying their account of the matter, GECOM Commissioner Charles Corbin said that the GECOM sub-Committee/interviewing panel had reported to the main Committee after it experienced a “deadlock” on the selection of Myers or Persaud.

Corbin told the ERC Sub-Committee that the GECOM Commission was “misled by his qualification” while Persaud was qualified, Myers had “superior qualifications” evidenced in her transcript which “showed better grades”.

Meanwhile, GECOM Commissioner Vincent Alexander said that Persaud “in the first place, did not have the required qualifications for the PRO job” and that “on his MBA that he presented for the DCEO job, he has a pass whilst the other candidate has better grades.”
In addition, both Commissioner Alexander and Desmond Trotman had agreed that while Persaud had claimed success for the civic and voter education programme, it was a “failed project”.

The report also noted that “the issues that led to his [Persaud’s] elevation were seen as acts of favoritism” by the three Commissioners, adding that in 2014, 50 per cent of Commissioners had voted against Persaud as DCEO “not on the grounds of ethnicity, but on the absence of merit”.

“There can be no doubt that with the arrival of the new Chairman, the same Commissioners spoke against Mr. Persaud’s appointment on the same grounds. However, the Chairman’s mind was so clouded with doubts that he agonised over that issue for three weeks before making a controversial decision…” it said.

In his report to the ERC Sub-Committee, GECOM Chairman Justice (Ret’d) James Patterson stated that Persaud seemed “shifty”. The Committee pointed out, however, that by the end of the report, the Chairman did not provide documents to corroborate the claim.

In the report, Patterson had recounted: “…informed by the documentation of each of them and there [sic] was some evidence of one of the particular candidate lying; not being faithful to the truth. That’s what I recall, I think he said one thing which wasn’t true and he admitted to it and had some excuse for that.”

Given these circumstances, the report indicated that the scores achieved by each candidate were not the only considerations taken into account with the casting of the vote by the three government-appointed Commissioners and the GECOM Chair. Questioned on whether the scoring system was decisive or a single element in a mix of considerations, GECOM CEO Keith Lowenfield had clarified that the “scores provide the basic guiding principle as far as selection is concerned”.

No race
Meanwhile, regarding the claims of the Opposition-appointed Commissioners that the decision to appoint Myers was based on race, the reported did not support such.
“On the issue of racial bias, there was no evidence of any widespread complaint of racial bias through the years until the issue involving Mr. Vishnu Persaud and Ms. Roxanne Myers,” the report stated.

It later concluded: “The unavailability of key personnel did not allow for extensive deliberations to arrive at a more informed conclusion. As such, from the material placed before us, it cannot be said that there has been any evidence of deliberate hiring of Guyanese of one ethnicity rather than of another.”

The ERC Sub-Committee highlighted the failure of GECOM’s Human Resources Manager to assist in the investigation but noted, too, that “the onus is on those who complain to provide evidence and no such evidence was presented.”

Those comprising the investigative ERC Sub-Committee included: Justice (Ret’d) Stanley Moore; Human Resources Consultant, Jairam Petam and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Ret’d) Lloyd Smith. Meanwhile, representing the ERC were ERC Commissioners, Major General (Ret’d) Norman McLean and Norris Witter.