PRESIDENT, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali will, on Friday, appoint the members of the Judicial and Teaching Service Commissions and the Public Procurement Commission, the Attorney General’s Chambers has disclosed.

The swearing-in will be held at the Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.

The AG’s Chambers, in a press release issued on Tuesday, said, “The constitutional and other legal requirements having been complied with,” the members of the three commissions will be sworn in.

The soon-to-be appointed members of the Judicial and Teaching Service Commissions have not been made public.

Regarding the membership of the PPC, the government-nominated members are Attorney-at-Law Pauline Chase, Financial Analyst Joel Bhagwandin, and Rajnarine Singh. A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition nominated Economist Rawle Lucas, and former Chairman of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), Berkeley Wickham to sit on the commission.

However, the party later withdrew Lucas from the nomination and replaced him with Dianna Rajkumar, an executive member of the AFC.

The PPC is a critical body as it is constitutionally responsible for oversight of the public procurement of all goods and services, along with the monitoring of infrastructural works to ensure that they conform to the relevant laws and guidelines.

Guyana has been without a PPC since October 2019, while the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has not been reconstituted since 2017.

The JSC is responsible for making recommendations for judicial appointments and removing or exercising disciplinary control over persons holding or acting in judicial offices.

There has been a 20-year impasse on judicial appointments with the last substantive Chancellor being Justice Desiree Bernard. The current Chancellor, Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Chief Justice, Roxane George, have both been acting in their respective positions for a number of years.

According to the provision made in Article 127 (1) of the Constitution, “The Chancellor and the Chief Justice shall each be appointed by the President, acting after obtaining the agreement of the Leader of the Opposition.”

On May 31, the president appointed several persons to serve as members of the Integrity Commission (IC) and the Police Service Commission (PSC).

Chandra Gajraj was elected as chair of the five-member Integrity Commission, which includes Dr. Jocelin Kim Kyte-Thomas, Mohamed Ispahani Haniff, Haresh Tiwari and Wayne Bowman.

Additionally, Bishop Patrick Findlay was sworn in as chair of the four-member Police Service Commission that also includes Mark Conway, Hakeem Mohamed and Ernesto Choo-a-Fat.

The members of the PSC were approved by the parliamentary Committee on Appointments, after consultations with the Guyana Police Association of former members of the Guyana Police Force, and the National Community Policing Executive.

The members of the IC were appointed by President Ali following consultations with the Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton.