…commissioners maintain ERC report cleared GECOM of racial bias in hiring

GUYANA Elections Commission (GECOM) government-nominated Commissioners on Tuesday said that the Ethnic Relation Commission’s (ERCs) report concluded that there is no racial bias influencing hiring practice at the commission and as such no further action is required.

That stance comes as opposition-nominated Commissioners have called for disciplinary action to be taken against GECOM’s Human Resources Manager who did not assist in the ERC’s investigations. However, on Tuesday, at the Commission’s statutory meeting, government-nominated Commissioner, Vincent Alexander, stated that “one could not arrive at disciplinary action unless one knew somebody was necessarily guilty of something”.

Explaining the history of what led to the ERC report, he stated that Opposition-nominated Commissioners made a request of the ERC that an investigation be conducted into GECOM’s employment practices from an ethnic perspective in relation to the hiring of Vishnu Persaud.

Back in 2018, Persaud and the now Deputy Chief Election Officer (DCEO), Roxanne Myers were contending for the position and, although the former scored higher marks at the interview, Myers was ultimately granted the position.

According to the ERC’s report, “work-related performances and questionable integrity” were critical factors that had informed the eventual decision of GECOM’s Chair, Justice (Ret’d) James Patterson.

Alexander told the media: “The report unequivocally concluded that there is no evidence that there was racial or ethnic bias in relation to Vishnu Persaud’s non-employment. There are other issues that they may have raised but those are peripheral issues. The fundamental issue, the ERC was conclusive and unequivocal about it.”

Further expounding on the issue, Commissioner Charles Corbin said that the request of the complainants to the ERC can be broken down into two elements.

These are whether, generally, race influences GECOM’s Human Resource Policy with regards to its hiring practice and whether Persaud’s non-employment was influenced by the bias of race.

“The report concluded that in both instances they found no evidence to support those allegations. That is the remit, as we understand it, of the ERC and that was the conclusion that they came to based on all the information that was available to them,” Corbin said.

Regarding the information requested but not received, he stated that the lack of this information could not be seen as having any negative impact on the final conclusion.

“If it were so, at their level, they would have so indicated. What they did in the report was to indicate everything that transpired but they still were able to arrive at a conclusion,” he added.
Commissioner Alexander told the media that, at Tuesday’s meeting, much of the talk on the matter centered on whether the concern should be taken to the Sub-Committee or the plenary which resulted in the usual divide.

“There are those who felt that here is the Commission at large, why do we need to refer to the sub-committee when the same set of people who will be in the sub-committee are in the plenary? The plenary is superior to the sub-committee so why not let’s discuss at the plenary which, at any instance, has to be the final place where it is discussed. So we wasted all the time discussing that and not discussing the report,” Alexander said.

Meanwhile, the matter of the reported misinformation of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) by GECOM’s Legal Officer, Attorney-at-Law, Excellence Dazzell was also discussed.
GECOM Commissioners had told the media that, in April, during the pre-trial hearing of the consolidated appeals, Dazzell informed the CCJ that the Elections Commission will respect its decision, and, as such, no submissions would be made.

But according to Alexander, this was not the instruction given to Dazzell.
According to him, GECOM’s attorney in the matter, Senior Counsel Stanley Marcus, had advised Dazzell to inform the CCJ that a lawyer was appointed on the commission’s behalf and submissions would be made but Dazzell did the opposite.

Her reported actions, which were only recently brought to the fore, has led to calls for Dazzell to be investigated for providing a legal opinion on the state of Official List of Voters without sanctioning from the commission.

Alexander stated that at yesterday’s meeting, reservations were once again expressed but a review of the matter by the GECOM Chairman is still pending