CHIEF Justice (ag) Ian Chang has directed that the Alliance For Change’s (AFC) Trevor Williams, who has been named to be posted as Director of Youth at the Ministry of Education—which has since absorbed the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport—to produce a warrant of his employment and further show by what authority he is purportedly now holding the Office. Williams’ appointment was yesterday challenged when Executive Member of the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) Progressive Youth Organisation, (PYO), Saleesha Gafoor, moved to the High Court.
In the motion filed before Chang and drawn up by former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, Gafoor claims the AFC’s Williams to be “a usurper and a trespasser in the office of Director of Youth, a public office in the pensionable establishment of the Public Service of Guyana, and which falls within the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.”
Gafoor, in court documents seen by the Guyana Chronicle, said she is advised by Nandlall, and verily do believe, Williams’ appointment not only violates the Guyana Constitution but is “arbitrary, capricious, unlawful, null, void and of no legal effect.”
The arguments put before Chang, as drawn up by the former Attorney General, points to the fact that the post of Director of Youth in the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport, is a pensionable one; and further, an appointment that must come by way of the Public Service Commission, which was not adhered to in the case of the appointment of Williams.
Chief Justice (ag) Chang, following a reading of Gafoor’s application which was presented to the court by way of a motion, ordered that Williams produce “a warrant of appointment and authority by which he holds the said office.”
He has also ordered Williams to show sufficient cause why he shouldn’t be ousted from the office by way of a court order.
Gafoor, in her petition to the court, said she is a 26 year-old PYO executive, which is one of the largest and oldest political organisations in Guyana representing young people and youth welfare within the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
Gafoor highlights too, the fact she was a candidate on the PPP/C List of Candidates on the list for the recently held General and Regional Election, and that “as a national youth leader, my interest and mandate is to ensure that youth welfare and the interest of young people receive paramount consideration by the State.”
In her motion against Williams, the PYO Executive highlights her awareness of the existence of a Public Service of Guyana with a Commission that is constitutionally independent, tasked with the responsibility and power to make appointments to public offices within the Public Service and to remove and to exercise disciplinary control over persons holding or acting in such offices.
She contends that the Office of Director is a public office on the pensionable establishment of the Public Service of Guyana and falls within the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.
Gafoor points too to the fact that the post is one advertised within the public sector and that, “Williams neither applied, nor was interviewed by the Public Service Commission.”
According to Gafoor, “Additionally, I verily believe that the said Trevor Williams is not qualified to hold the said office as per the job description issued by the Public Service Commission.”
Gafoor said she learnt of his appointment by way of media publication enjoying national daily circulation within the State of Guyana.
Upon learning of his purported appointment, Gafoor claims to have “inquired from the Public Service Commission and was duly informed and do verily believe that this appointment was not made by the Public Service Commission.”
As such, she believes, and has since sworn in the court documents that “Trevor Williams’s appointment and functioning in that office is injurious to the welfare of young people and indeed injurious to the national interest.

By Gary Eleazar