GEORGETOWN, Guyana (GINA) — Minister within the Ministry of Finance and former chairman of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC), Bishop Juan Edghill has informed the media that the staff members of the Commission are yet to be paid their May salaries.
During the review of the 2012 National Budgetary Estimates, the joint parliamentary opposition used their one seat majority to cut the ERC’s allocation.
“While this would have been said several times before, it would appear that persons have not yet come to the realisation that in essence that meant closure of the Ethnic Relations Commission…. as of today the staff have not been paid,” Edghill said.
He added that efforts are afoot to ascertain what monies are available as a result of disbursements that would have been made in keeping with custom and practice along with financial regulations, so as to determine how staff members can be treated for the month of May.
“Where we go from here, from the month of May can be treated as an issue that has to be determined elsewhere,” the minister said.
In addressing the misconception about the constitutionality of the ERC, Edghill explained that it is not left to dialogue between the president and leader of the opposition or to tripartite talks, as the ERC is a constitutional body.
He added that, at the time when the combined opposition voted to cut the ERC’s budget, either they were unaware of the constitutional mechanisms for the re-constituting of the ERC, or they were aware and pretended that they can have this remedied using other means or they are on a path to deliberately mislead the Guyanese people.
“The only way you can have a re-constituted ERC is through the constitutional process and it’s not left to backroom wheeling and dealing between the president and the leader of the opposition… it is the entities that produce the commissioners and it is the parliament that must agree to the entities… it is time that the pubic become aware and every politician and political leader start representing this issue correctly to the public and ensure that the constitutional provisions are followed so that they can have a re-constituted ERC,” Edghill said.
In justifying the budgetary allocations of $99.4 million for ERC, Edghill explained that the commission has 23 staff members, and there are times when the staffing can number as many as 80 because of the need for part-time monitors to observe political activities along with other staff necessary in the execution of the commission’s constitutional mandate in all the administrative regions.
Edghill explained that the move by some ERC staff members to hold talks with AFC’s chairman Khemraj Ramjattan and APNU’s leader David Granger was not sanctioned by the commission, as it is an independent entity that executes its operations in such a manner.
“That was an initiative of the staff members who felt threatened… had I been the leader of the opposition or the AFC and staff members of the ERC request to meet with me to discuss budget cuts I would have declined,” Edghill said.