…as tribunal failed to produce instrument of appointment
Monday’s disciplinary hearing to determine whether Opposition Member of Parliament (MP), Ganesh Mahipaul, in his capacity as a Community Development Officer, violated his oath of office and leaked state ‘secrets,’ was aborted after the three-member tribunal failed to produce their instrument of appointment.
Mahipaul appeared before the Public Service Commission (PSC) tribunal led by Naeem Khan, Coordinator of Engineering Services at the Ministry of Local Government, on Monday, at the Ministry’s Extension Office on Camp Street, however, the hearing was not conducted.
Village Voice News understands that before the commencement of the hearing, Mahipaul’s representatives – Dawn Gardener and Patricia Went – from the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) – requested to see the instrument that mandated the tribunal to proceed with the hearing. The instrument was not produced.
“The Chairman could not have produced the document requested and insisted that the hearing must begin. The GPSU representatives suggested that the hearing be rescheduled and the instrument be presented to the accused public servant,” Mahipaul told Village Voice News when contacted Monday evening.
Mahipaul said after much deliberation he left the room with his GPSU representatives, and now awaits the instrument of appointment.
In a letter dated November 3, 2020, the Local Government Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Prema Ramanah Roopnarine laid the four charges – violation of an oath or affirmation of office, two counts of absent from duty without leave or adequate excuse, and divulging official information of a secret or confidential nature where the duties do not require a public servant to do so – before Mahipaul.
The Community Development Officer, who has been in the employ of the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development for close to six years, said he was never formally written to by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary and or the Public Service Commission (PSC) informing him of the establishment of the tribunal.
“The Permanent Secretary nor the Secretary to the Public Service Commission never wrote me nor communicated to me in any way or form that a tribunal has been set up to hear my case. I was only written to by the Chairman of the Tribunal,” he told Village Voice News.
Ahead of the scheduled hearing, Mahipaul, while maintaining that he has not breached the rules and regulations of the public service, expressed no confidence in the tribunal.
“I have no confidence in the tribunal because the members of the tribunal are members of the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, and it is the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development who is accusing me of wrong doing, and these very staff members who are a part of the tribunal are also staff members under her watch,” Mahipaul explained.
On Monday evening, he pointed out that the Public Service Commission Rules require that the Disciplinary Tribunal team must be of a grade not lower than that of a Senior Personnel Officer or of a grade equivalent in status, but in no case, a grade lower than the officer charged.
“When the GPSU representatives asked the tribunal team whether their grade is higher or lower than Mr. Mahipaul no one answered,” he said.
He is of the opinion, that the tribunal was hurriedly put together. “Given what transpired today at the Disciplinary Tribunal Hearing, I am of the firm conviction that the Permanent Secretary hurriedly put together three persons who are not familiar with the Public Service Commission Rules and is acting for formality sake to produce a report that will recommend my dismissal,” Mahipaul posited.
He maintains, however, that the charges are politically motivated, baseless and without merit.
In laying the first charge, the Permanent Secretary told Mahipaul that he allowed himself to be named as a candidate on the APNU+AFC List of Candidates for the 2020 General Elections, when such constitutes a breach and violation of his oath of office to be impartial.
But Mahipaul, while denying all four charges, said he took no such oath. “First of all, I [have] never signed an oath of office; I was never presented with such,” he had said in an earlier interview.
But that aside, Mahipaul said the charge amounts to a breach of his constitutional right as a citizen of Guyana, as he referenced to Article 147 (1) of the Constitution of Guyana.
“So clearly the constitution gives me that right to be affiliated with a political party, and to claim that I put my name on a List of Candidates in violation of some oath of office, which I have never seen, I think is out of order, and it violates my constitutional right as a Guyanese to associate with a political party,” Mahipaul contended.
Another charge, alleges that he “leaked” of state “secrets.” It is alleged that on August 10, 2020, Mahipaul published confidential information of the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development on his Facebook page.
“The information being services provided by Design Unlimited for the production of business cards, compliment slips and design and installation of a sign board for the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development,” the Permanent Secretary explained, while claiming that Mahipaul breached the Public Service Rules. But Mahipaul, in arguing that there is no breach, described the charge as “frivolous.”
