The recent police promotions are lawful despite the Police Service Commission (PSC) not having its full complement, say Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall.
Attorney-at-law Mark Conway, a former member of the Police Service Commission (PSC), passed away in November 2024. The Guyana Standard understands that, as a result, the promotions list was recommended without the input of a member. Following this, Nandlall noted that there is a view circulating in the public domain and on social media, claiming that the promotions are unlawful.
“I want to reject that view absolutely. It is wrong. It is born out of ignorance. It should be ignored,” the AG noted.
He explained that those who are making that assertion are predicating it upon a decision of Chief Justice Roxanne George in a case decided two years ago. It was a case filed by Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton, which he lost. But in the course of her ruling on that matter, the Chief Justice pronounced that the Police Service Commission at the time was not properly constituted because it did not have all the members from the beginning. So, there was never a commission in the first place.
Nandlall said that the Chief Justice’s ruling was based upon her interpretation of the Constitution, which says that there shall be a Police Service Commission, which shall consist of the Chairman of the Public Service Commission and the other persons who constitute the Commission. At the time when that commission was sworn in, there was no Public Service Commission Chairman appointed. So, the Police Service Commission, according to the Chief Justice, was never properly constituted.
He added that the Chief Justice drew a distinction in her ruling between such a situation and a reality where there is full Police Service Commission—meaning all the members are there—but during the course of its tenure, one resigns, one dies, or there is a vacancy. In that case, a singular vacancy, once there is a quorum, will not affect the lawfulness, composition, or legality of the commission.
“The Chief Justice ruled that you have to have the entire commission sworn in at the same time. If one is missing from the beginning, well, then there was never a commission in the first place [but] that is not the position here. The position here is that you had a full commission, and one member died. So, you have a vacancy, and the Constitution is very clear—the commission can perform its functions notwithstanding that vacancy,” Nandlall explained.
He added that “these subtle principles are lost on those who want to be the makers and shapers of public opinion and are grandly and boldly speaking on matters over which they have no competence whatsoever”.
