By Patrick Denny
Stabroek News
June 12, 2001

The Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Public Service Ministry (PSM) should be the Head of the Public Service, a post which is separate and apart from that of the political post of Head of the Presidential Secretariat.

This recommendation was made in the paper prepared for President Bharrat Jagdeo and PNC/R leader, Desmond Hoyte by former chairman of the Public Service Commission, Harold Sahadeo and former PSM Permanent Secretary, Joyce Sinclair.

An Office of the President official also told Stabroek News that in accord with the recommendation, the budgetary allocation for the PSM would not be listed under the Office of the President in the 2001 budget. The recommendation was accepted, sources say, when the two leaders met yesterday for the nineth time since general elections at the Office of the President. It is unclear if the current PS in the PSM, N K Gopaul would continue in this post.

Before the establishment of the post of the Head of the Presidential Secretariat, the Permanent Secretary of the PSM was the acknowledged head of the Public Service.

The decision to separate the two posts was taken at the first meeting of the current dialogue series between President Jagdeo and Hoyte on April 24 when they agreed that the Public Service should be politically neutral.

The re?appointment of PPP/C executive member, Dr Roger Luncheon, first named to the post in 1992 and re?appointed in 1997 and 2001 after resigning to campaign for those elections, sparked street protests.

Another step agreed between President Jagdeo and Hoyte yesterday was a meeting between Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Reepu Daman Persaud and PNC/R chairman, Robert Corbin, to explore ways of resolving the difference between the two sides on the controversial proviso to the amendment to Article 127 of the Constitution.

Stabroek News was told that one mechanism for resolving the issue is the appointment of a small committee of leading lawyers to find a formulation which would not leave the appointment process prone

to a constitutional crisis which the government claims could result from the amendment which had been originally agreed.

The amendment as had been agreed by the PPP/C and the PNC/R to Article 127 provides for the introduction of a consensual mechanism for appointing the Chancellor of the Judiciary and the Chief Justice. The Constitution Reform Commission recommended this approach and it was endorsed by the parliamentary Oversight Committee (OSC) on constitutional reform.

The Seventh Parliament approved the OSC's recommendation by a 55?0 majority and the PPP/Civic and the PNC/R agreed on the draft amendment based on the recommendation. The legislation was not tabled before the Seventh Parliament was dissolved.

At their April 24 meeting, President Jagdeo and Hoyte agreed that all the outstanding constitutional amendments should be enacted within a month of the Eighth Parliament being convened.

However, when the bill was tabled last month, the PNC/R claimed that the proviso giving the President the power to make the appointment(s) if he could not get the agreement of the Leader of the Opposition within two months was included unilaterally by the government.

It warned the government that it would withhold its support for the bill if the proviso was not withdrawn. Last week, the bill was to have been read for a second time but that reading was deferred to Thursday to allow for consultations between the two sides.

At yesterday's meeting too, Stabroek News understands that President Jagdeo reiterated to Hoyte that he was still open to proposals besides the one for Alcoa to take over Bermine and for which the government had indicated a preference. However, he has said that if another proposal which could be implemented and was practical was put forward, he was prepared to consider it.

Over the weekend, both President Jagdeo and Hoyte received an alternative proposal from the Bermine workers and the report of the joint committee on the resuscitation of the bauxite industry which they had set up.