The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) has submitted the name of its nominee to be a member of the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) but says it has not been consulted about the appointment of the chairman of the TSC.

Questions continue to be raised about the delay in setting up the teaching and other service commissions.

Article 207(2)(a) requires the President to appoint a chairman of the commission “acting after consultation with such bodies as appear to him to represent teachers.” The GTU is the only union recognised as the bargaining agent for teachers.

Union president Sydney Murdoch told Stabroek News that if anyone was holding up the appointment of the Teaching Service Commission it was not the GTU. He asserted that the union had responded two months ago to President Bharrat Jagdeo’s request for its nominee to sit on the commission. The GTU nominee is George Cave, who has been its nominee since 1994. About consultations on the appointment of the TSC chairman, Murdock told Stabroek News that the GTU had not been approached for consultation.

The President is required by the constitution to appoint three members of the commission after consulting with the Leader of the Opposition. Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon at his weekly press briefing last week said that the President had written the Leader of the Opposition about the issue but was yet to have a response. Stabroek News has been unable to ascertain receipt of the letter by Corbin as well as whether the President’s letter was in accordance with the requirements of the constitution. Corbin in a broadcast to the nation recently complained that the request for consultation about the appointment of members to the Police Service Commission was not in accord with Article 232(1)(a)- 232(1)(c).

These articles require the President to specify to the Leader of the Opposition in writing the subject of the consultation and the intended date for the decision on the subject while affording him a reasonable opportunity to express a considered opinion on it. He is required to have prepared and archived a written record of the consultation and to provide him with a copy of the record.

The President is also required by the constitution to appoint two members nominated for appointment by the Minister of Local Government after he consults the local democratic bodies. Stabroek News has so far been unable to find out if the Local Government Minister has initiated or completed the required consultations.

Of the four service commissions, the TSC is the only one in the constitution in which the National Assembly plays no part. And save for the three members whose appointment requires consultation with the Leader of the Opposition, the rest of the members are appointed on the initiative of the executive.