THE ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP), at its weekly press conference yesterday, expressed its concern over the number of critical IT vacancies existing at GECOM. 

According to General Secretary of the Party, Clement Rohee, no significant efforts have been made by GECOM to fill the IT vacancies which have been in existence for a considerable time. He noted that as a result of this, the Party has voiced its disappointment over GECOM’s recruitment procedures.
“Time and again the PPP has voiced its disappointment over GECOM’s recruitment procedures and the non-involvement of Commissioners in this process. Too often unilateral decisions are taken without due regard to the Commission members’ opinion,” Rohee said.
The General Secretary highlighted the fact that in a recent statement made by GECOM’s Chairman, declaring it’s “readiness” for Local Government Elections, mention was made of information obtained from the 6th Cycle Registration being inputted into the National Register of Registrants Database(NRRDB) by GECOM’s IT staff.
The party is as such contending that GECOM’s IT Department is without proper supervision and quality control measures due to the absence of an IT Manager and the key Senior IT Personnel. “The PPP is concerned over the snail’s pace implementation of this process and questions the integrity of the section’s management and supervision due to the lack of qualified technical supervisory personnel stationed there,” he stressed.
The party is also concerned about the validity of the data being entered into the National Register of Registrants Database (NRRDB), cognisant of the fact that the Preliminary Voters List (PVL) and subsequently the Final Voters List (FVL) will be extracted from the National Register of Registrants Database (NRRDB).
“Our interest is for GECOM to ensure that proper supervision and quality control measures are available, with the recruitment of competent IT personnel to overlook such a critical process and to ensure that every eligible Guyanese is given the opportunity to exercise his right to elect a Government of his choice whenever elections are called,” the General Secretary emphasised.
He continued that it is important that only persons who have attained voting age by October 31, 2014, be extracted from the National Register of Registrants Database (NRRDB) and placed in the PVL.

As such, the PPP is calling on GECOM to urgently seek the assistance of the international donor agencies to recruit competent IT personnel, including an IT Manager, through a transparent recruitment process with all major stakeholders involved.

(Ravin Singh)