THE People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) welcomes the ruling of the chief justice that Simona Broomes violated the Constitution of Guyana when she issued orders to the Public Service Commission (PSC) to “Cease all interviews for vacant positions in various public offices until further directed by President David Granger.” In a statement, the party said that Junior Minister of Social Protection Simona Broomes, had at first denied sending such a letter to the Secretary of the PSC, but later recanted claiming she “only wanted to understand what was happening.” Broomes’s action was challenged in the High Court as a violation of Article 226 of the Constitution that it was “Unlawful, null, void, and of no legal effect.”
Broomes’s colleague, Volda Lawrence, Minister of Social Protection, attempted to rescue her when she admitted that she did see the letter, but claimed that the spirit in which it was written was not” disrespectful” and that she viewed Broomes’s action “as political.”
Broomes has proven a disaster for the Granger administration, the crude unconstitutional intervention under the guise of her Leader was rebuffed by the Court;“ The Public Service Commission (PSC) is an independent body and such interference, prevents it from acting within its jurisdiction. Nobody can do that, the court ruled.
The party also stated that “It is hoped that this action will prove as a lesson to other eager beavers in the APNU+AFC (A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance For Change) coalition, one of whom has already attempted a similar action with respect to the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC), another constitutional body.”
“Interestingly, consistent with their open support for the Granger de-facto Administration, the Kaieteur News and Stabroek News have both refused to publish the Chief Justice’s ruling, which was issued on June 24, 2015. This was obviously done to save the Granger Administration the bad publicity and embarrassment. It is widely believed that had the culprit been a PPP/C minister, these two newspapers would have “gone to town” on the matter,” the party stressed.
Writing in the Sunday Chronicle of June 14, Karen DeSouza and Alissa Trotz criticised Broomes for her attack on sex workers as opposed to Trafficking. DeSouza and Trotz advised that it is “important for Broomes to realise that her ministry is doing the work against trafficking a disservice if, instead of addressing the systemic factors that create the conditions for trafficking to exist and flourish, the official focus is on these individual rescue missions that receive such irresponsible coverage from the media.” Broomes was urged to focus on “Other sites and forms of trafficking in Guyana that do not always involve prostitution.”
It was highlighted by the PPP/C that lots of negativity surrounded Robeson Benn’s presence at NCN and how it was twisted and given front page coverage by the anti-PPP/C media. The party explained that Broomes’s behaviour at the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) was treated quite differently in keeping with Stabroek News and Kaieteur News support for the Granger administration.
The bottom line however, is that Broomes’s action cumulatively is a manifestation of how the APNU+AFC coalition is prone to getting things wrong from the beginning.