Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 09, 2009 News
– Minister Shaik Baksh
By Sharmain Cornette
Although Acting Chief Education Officer, Ms Genevieve Whyte-Nedd will reach the age of retirement next year, there has been no word as to whether she will be appointed in order to receive the full benefits of the substantive position.
This state of affairs has drawn much attention from the union fraternity, which has in various forms exhibited its concern. It was just last week that President of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Gillian Burton, in the company of union members staged a picketing exercise outside the Education Ministry on Brickdam, in this regard.
Minister of Education, Shaik Baksh, in an invited comment yesterday revealed that the appointment of the senior officer does not come under the purview of his Ministry, but rather the Public Service Commission (PSC). He related that Whyte-Nedd’s situation is not only evident in the Education Ministry, but in several other Ministries as well.
“This is a matter for the PSC, they have to deal with that. There are many persons acting within all of the Ministries…Even the Auditor General is acting. There are many, many persons acting. So this situation will have to be dealt with at the level of the Commission,” Baksh related.
Efforts to contact Ganga Persaud, the PSC Chairman, by telephone yesterday, provided no clarity on the situation, as he refused to comment on the matter.
But according to Patricia Went, Industrial Relations Officer within the Guyana Public Service Union, which represents Whyte-Nedd, the senior officer stands to lose a considerable amount of financial benefits if she is not appointed before retirement.
Went disclosed the obvious fact that once the acting official is not appointed as the substantive Chief Education Officer she will not be able to benefit from the pension and gratuity of the substantive position
Whyte-Nedd, Went revealed, had acted in the capacity of Chief Education Officer three times between the period 2000 and 2004, and continued acting in that capacity when the position became vacant in September 2005. And it was in 2005 that Whyte-Nedd opted to apply for the position but yet was not appointed, Went recounted.
The GPSU as a result wrote to the PSC but no response was forthcoming at that time, according to Went.
In fact, she related, several letters were inked to both the Education Ministry and the PSC with regards to the non-appointment of Whyte-Nedd.
As a result, “at a (GPSU) general council meeting we moved a motion to write to President Bharrat Jagdeo about our concerns about persons who were acting in the Public Sector… at that time, too, the Head of Customs and the Commissioner of Police were acting,” Went divulged.
According to her, last year the Minister of Education in response to a letter about Whyte-Nedd’s non-appointment had stated that the matter was being addressed, while the PSC in a separate response noted that the matter was engaging the attention of the Commission.
“I really cannot say why she has not been appointed because she is qualified for the position,” Went commented.
Among Whyte-Nedd’s academic credentials are a Masters in Education, a Bachelor’s Degree in Education, a Certificate in Management and Supervisory Practices, a Certificate in Nursery Education, a Class One Grade One Trained Teacher Certificate. Whyte-Nedd has over the years held the positions of District Education Supervisor, Regional Education Officer, and Assistant Chief Education Officer.
President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), Colwyn King, yesterday regarded the “Whyte-Nedd dilemma” as one that does not help the morale of teachers in any way. King explained that upon entry to the teaching profession, teachers all aspire to one day become the Chief Education Officer adding that “by not appreciating Whyte-Nedd and by cheating her out of her appointment will not help the education system in anyway.”
The GTU had on several occasions raised the need for Whyte-Nedd’s appointment with the Education Minister, according to King.
During last week’s picketing exercise, GTUC’s Gillian Burton had speculated that such developments are responsible for Guyana being on the verge of an industrial relations collapse. The exercise, Burton said, was intended to highlight the fact that qualified persons within the public service, such as Whyte-Nedd, are left to act over the years and are not appointed.
And according to Burton, the unions are looking at all persons throughout the public sector who have been acting over the years, a state of affairs that has reduced the public service to a grand theatre. “We have Hollywood in Guyana today, where appointments are not given to persons but they are being placed to act, and we know such persons, not only the CEO, but other persons who qualify to hold positions, they are just being placed to act.”
“The time has come for Hollywood to shut down and let the acting stop. These public servants must be appointed,” Burton insisted.
She related that one of the reasons for the current predicament is the fact that lawlessness is allowed to abound, even as she noted that there could be no hindrance to the appointment of persons such as Whyte-Nedd as they are aptly qualified.
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