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President Bharrat Jagdeo and Leader of the Opposition, Robert Corbin yesterday agreed on a chairman of the Police Service Commission and the nominee to the Judicial Service Commission.
According to their joint press release, the two leaders met at the Office of the President yesterday and initiated consultations on matters related to the reconstitution of the four constitutional service commissions.
Stabroek News understands from reliable sources that retired senior police officer, Ivan Crandon, will be appointed the chairman of the Police Service Commission and Justice Prem Persaud is the agreed nominee to sit on the Judicial Service Commis-sion.
For the Police Service Commission, the law provides for a five-member commission with four nominated by the Police Association and from whom the president appoints the chairman after meaningful consultation with the Leader of the Opposition. The fifth member is the chairman of the Public Service Commission. This means that the Police Service Commis-sion cannot be constituted unless the chairman of the Public Service Commission is appointed first.
Under the constitution the president is required to consult with the leader of the opposition on the appointment of a member to the Judicial Service Commission.
The Guyana Bar Associa-tion, the Guyana Women Lawyers Association and the Berbice Bar Association are to also name a nominee or nominees. The constitution makes provision for the president to appoint at least one but not more than two commissioners to represent the lawyers.
The release said the two leaders also began their consultations on the appointments to the Teaching Service Commission and the Public Service Commission. These consultations are to continue during the week.
The two leaders, the release said, had also agreed that with regard to the Constructive Engagement, the high level representatives will meet later this week to prepare and present to the two leaders, a status report.
The protracted delay in the appointments of the commissions has been lengthened by what Jagdeo describes as an anomaly in the Constitution as it relates to the composition of the Police Service Commission.
According to a previous statement from the Office of the President, this was because "the Constitutional Reform Commission's report to the National Assembly recommended that the Police Service Commission be similarly composed to the Public Service Commission and the Teaching Service Commis-sion."
Jagdeo had proposed that this could be corrected by expanding the commission by three members and in return for their acquiescence was willing to give the PNCR a nominee on the Public and Teaching Service Commis-sions. Corbin had refused to respond to both an informal proposal and one formally submitted in July. Earlier this month he made it clear he could not possibly consider Jagdeo's deal since he said it was simply a ruse by the PPP/C to gain political control of the police force.