By Jomo Paul
[www.inewsguyana.com]–Attorney General, Anil Nandlall has refuted claims by the Leader of the Opposition David Granger that there was no meaningful consultation on the appointment of Seelall Persaud as Commissioner of Police.
Granger made the claim last Friday pointing out that the President is constitutionally mandated to consult with the Opposition Leader and the Chairman of the Police Service Commission prior to the substantive appointment of the Top Cop.
Article 211 of the Constitution states that the “Commissioner of Police and every Deputy Commissioner of Police shall be appointed by the President acting after meaningful consultations with the Leader of the Opposition and Chairperson of the Police Service Commission after the Chairperson has consulted with the other members of the Commission.”
But Granger has made it clear that he “did not have consultation with the President within the meaning of meaningful consultation under Article 211.”
When contacted on Tuesday, March 17 Nandlall told iNews that this was not the case and Granger was indeed consulted on Persaud’s appointment.
“The President satisfied that constitutional requirement by consulting with Mr Granger, orally as well as in writing,” Nandlall told iNews.
When asked whether the consultation was meaningful, Nandlall said “I am of the view that they were meaningful; perhaps Mr Granger is confusing meaningful with agreement. There are certain consultations the President cannot make without the agreement of the Opposition Leader…I can only surmise that Mr Granger is equating meaningful consultation with that of Agreement and if he does that he is palpably wrong.”
The Constitution of Guyana lays down three conditions for meaningful consultations: the relevant person or persons must be identified and they must be then invited to consultations and in so doing be provided with notification as the purpose of the consultations; they must be given a reasonable opportunity to express a considered opinion on the subject of the consultations; and a written record should be kept of the discussions.
When asked whether this was fulfilled, Nandlall responded in the affirmative and told iNews that he has the evidence to support the claims.
“The evidence of the written exchanges of the President and Mr Granger is available…we have the letters, Mr Granger himself wrote letters; the letters are captioned ‘consultation in relation to the appointment to Commissioner of Police,” said Nandlall.
Persaud, who was acting in the capacity of Police Commissioner since early 2014, was officially confirmed in the capacity by President Donald Ramotar on Tuesday March 10.
