Sandra Jones: The new face at GECOM
“WHEN I think of service to Guyana, I think of a general good. If we are to live in Guyana and co-exist, we have to look beyond party (political) and get to a point of finding some common ground…Because, at the end of the day, when all the politics and party hoopla die down, we have to live as neighbours; sometimes in the same building; and even in the same house.” These were some of the sentiments expressed by recently sworn-in commissioner to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Ms Sandra Valerie Jones, during an interview with the Guyana Chronicle last Wednesday.
A very dapper dresser, Jones, who is in her early 60s, brings a lot to GECOM’s table, and is determined to use her invaluable experience acquired over the years to help the commission function more effectively.
Years ago, she did a project funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for GECOM, whereby she assisted the commission to look at its structure and system. This, she believes, could help her with her new duties.
At present, she is in the process of looking in-depth at GECOM’s system, and she also wants to look at some of the reports that emanated from the country’s last elections. “I’m hoping to be guided by what is recommended there. Except for the fact that there is a lot of talk about reforms, I would like to see those reforms properly described and structured,” she said.

“I think there is reason for reforms, but like everything else, I would like to see the reforms properly described, enunciated, and then we could move towards those processes.”
Meanwhile, the new commissioner is very happy to be in a position to serve Guyana in such a capacity. “Because I always wanted to come back and serve Guyana, I am prepared to do whatever I can to better the lives of Guyanese. And this appointment gives me just such an opportunity,” she said.
Jones hopes to bring back a lot of balance in the governance of the country through systems and approaches that are fair and transparent. “I want to live in Guyana for the rest of my life, and in a Guyana in which good judgment, good sense, good governance prevail. So I am prepared to work towards this,” she said.

SV Jones Associates
Sandra Jones was born in Georgetown, and spent her early years in suburban Lodge. A product of St Joseph High, she furthered her studies in the United States, and after returning home, acquired a family home at Mc Doom, on the lower East Bank, which they still have.
She spent a number of years at Linden, but after a while, returned to Georgetown, where she still currently resides. “I came from a family that was from the Upper Demerara region. My father, in his latter years, went back to Dalgin, where his family is from. So we’ve been doing farming on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway at Dalgin,” she explained, hence her strong interest in agriculture.
In addition to her duties as commissioner, she is also a Human Resource and Organisational Management Consultant. In this latter field, she helps businesses establish structures for running their organisations. Developing job descriptions, new systems, and training people in all the elements of supervision and management, are also among her duties.
But she was not always a consultant. After returning home from studies abroad, she  landed a job in the bauxite industry, where she worked for a number of years.  By 1997, however, she felt she was ready to launch out on her own, which is how she came to found SV Jones Associates, which is located in Lamaha Gardens, Greater Georgetown.
Over the years, she has worked with government agencies and ministries; private companies; projects funded by the donor community; for CARICOM; the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); the World Bank; the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA); and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
She recalled that when she first joined the bauxite industry, she started off in journalism as the first editor of ‘Guymine International News’, a paper that was published weekly. But it was after a spell in the field of human resources that she was to eventually find her niche.
“I even had a stint at Harbridge House International, which, in the 1980s, exercised a lot of influence on training corporate staff in Guyana,” she said. “After this, I left Guymine and started on my own. So I got a large clientele by virtue of referrals. I would work for somebody, and they were pleased, and they told somebody else. And that’s how come a lot of my business came about.”
Having spent a number of years at the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) Headquarters in Trinidad also gave her an opportunity to work extensively in the Region, from Guyana all the way back to Belize.

Philosophy
A strong believer in doing what you have to do to the best of your ability, and never being embarrassed about asking for help when you don’t know, Jones said: “That’s one of the things that I have built my career on. When I don’t know, I seek the knowledge and understanding from sources that are reputable.”

As to how she is perceived by those who don’t know her, she said: “Most people who don’t know me think I’m a very serious and formal person. And when they do get to know me, they are surprised that I can laugh and talk, and make a joke and do funny things.”
What they won’t know about her either is that she’s rather nifty in the kitchen, and has been known on occasion to rush home from a very trying meeting and, without changing into something comfortable, high heels and all, cook up a storm. She also makes a mean cross bun, which she shares with close friends and family at Easter time, delivering the goodies to their doors herself.
President Donald Ramotar  congratulated Jones and extended best wishes to her as new commissioner. She took the oath in his presence, along with those of GECOM Chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally; Chief Elections Officer, Goocool Boodhoo; and Leader of the Opposition and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), David Granger.
She replaces the late Robert Williams, who died in January.