Though some women were considered for nomination to the Public Service Commission (PSC) none got on and trade union leader Patrick Yarde is suggesting that gender balance should be enshrined legislatively to avoid a repeat of the all-male body.
A government spokesman meanwhile says that government nominees to the recently reappointed Public Service Commission (PSC) were selected from the best-suited persons readily available given the time and circumstances surrounding the selection process.
This in no way reflects the feeling that were no qualified women to sit on that body, Liaison Officer to the President, Robert Persaud told Stabroek News when contacted on the issue recently. He acknowledged that gender balance was not looked at in the considerations and that there are several able women who could have been selected and would have served competently.
The composition of the recent reconstituted PSC has been criticised by several individuals and groups who see it as a source of concern particularly as some 75% of those employed in the sector are women.
The six members are George Fung-On, John Worrell, Leslie Melville, David Yhann Jr, Harrinarine Nawbatt and Dr Kissoon. Melville and Kissoon were approved by the National Assembly after the Appointive Committee had consulted with the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), the Federated Union of Government Employees (FUGE) and the Public Service Senior Staff Association (PSSSA). President Bharrat Jagdeo appointed Fung-On, Worrell and Yhann after consulting with the Leader of the Opposition, Robert Corbin and he appointed Nawbatt as he is entitled to do according to Article 201 (c) of the Constitution.
Letter writers and others have expressed differing views on the subject ever since the selection and eventual swearing in of the six-member commission at the beginning of the year.
In a letter in the January 3 edition of the Stabroek News, Caribbean Women's Associa-tion (CARIWA) Deputy President Hazel Halley-Burnett expressed disappointment with the non-selection of a woman to the PSC. According to Halley-Burnett her organisation viewed the all-male commission's appointment with concern, disappointment and shock. However Persaud said that government while noting these concerns saw it strange that even the Guyana Association of Women Lawyers (GAWL) failed to nominate a woman for the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) during the required consultations.
In response, GAWL's Secretary, attorney at law, Dale Kingston said that the organisation did not do so because one of its members Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Desiree Bernard will by virtue of her office sit on the JSC.
Further their ability to nominate another female is limited by the fact that all of their members are in active private practice, are state prosecutors or sit on the bench. The constitutional provisions direct that nominees should be chosen from those not in active practice, Kingston said.
She pointed to Article 198(b) which stated that the nominee should be "not less than one and not more than two from among persons who are not attorneys-at-law in active practice..."
The GAWL in a statement carried in the January 14 edition of the Stabroek News has said that the appointment of the all-male Public Service Commission and Police Service Commission was in breach of the constitution.
It further urged that application be made for redress and the enforcement of a fundamental right and appealed to female members of parliament to ensure the breach is corrected and no further violations occur.
Persaud asked why other groups had not put forward a woman if they were so concerned about there being no gender equity.
Guyana Public Service Union President Patrick Yarde said that the decision to nominate union consultant, Melville and attorney at law Joseph Harmon for selection to the commission was based on a democratic process.
According to Yarde the union's executive council in seeking to choose the candidates used two criteria in narrowing their selection. The union nominations were based upon the view that the nominees needed to have legal competence as well as a longstanding trade union background, Yarde said. This allowed them to narrow their nominees to three: Harmon, Melville and woman trade unionist Vera Naughton. The latter conceded in favour of Melville whose nomination she and other women at the meeting supported fully, Yarde said.
Similarly PNC/R Leader Corbin in his consultation with President Jagdeo on the selection of three of the commission members had put forward the name of a former senior female public servant as one of his two nominees. The president settled for the male nominee. Sources point out that the president could have selected the woman nominated by Corbin or select one in his own right.
FUGE executive Seelo Baichan acknowledged that the union did not nominate a woman to sit on the body. Its nominee was one of its executives, Earl Welch.
Yarde meanwhile noted that the president had the last selection, which he used to name another male in Nawbatt rather than a female.
Fung-On was eventually selected as Chairman of the commission when the members met for their first sitting days after their swearing in.
The GPSU head further cited the recognition by government of the PSSSA as a bona fide union as restricting the GPSU's ability to select two persons, as was previously the case.
Efforts to contact a senior official of the PSSSA for comment on its selection proved futile.
The GPSU had expressed its opposition to the PSSSA being recognised as a union.
Yarde further suggested that parliament should act to avoid a repeat of the all-male body by enshrining gender balance via legislation.
Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon when asked at a recent press briefing about the non-selection of a woman to the PSC had said that this could best be answered by either the GPSU or the PSSSA.
According to Luncheon, the two bodies submitted nominees to the process and any concerns should be directed to them as their membership predominantly consisted of females.
However Yarde feels that it is the government who should be answering that question since they had a hand in all the other choices including through the PSSSA.
The union, he said, strongly felt that there should have been women on the commission while insisting that emphasis should be placed on achieving gender equity.
Halley-Burnett in her letter alluded to the country's accession to such conventions as the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and its approval of a national policy on women in 1996.
She further promised that CARIWA will work "assiduously" to ensure that policy framer and makers in the sixteen member states follow the principle that women must participate in decision making in their respective territories.