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PSC on the run
The Public Service Commission (PSC) resorted to paid advertisements, last week, to refute the allegations of racial imbalance and discrimination in the higher levels of the public service. The ad is mischievous and misleading. This expenditure could fund a study to determine why Indo-Trini public servants cannot seem to progress beyond a certain level in the service.
The PSC has gone on the defensive, instead of pro-actively confronting the distasteful reality that discrimination is occurring under its nose and watch. The dilemma, of course, is how does the PSC admit that it has been facilitating and supporting an entrenched bias without admitting failure and incompetence. I prefer to focus on the institutional failure and incompetence of the PSC, because I cannot believe that there was/is a racial conspiracy against Indian public servants which is part of the policy/agenda of the PSC.
Indeed, Indians Kenneth Lalla, SC, and Michael Mahabir were chairman and director, respectively, of the PSC when I started doing cases of discrimination, and they defended and perpetuated the status quo with equal zest and fervour. Thus, prison officer Dougnath Rajkumar was never promoted since he joined the service more than 30 years ago, despite the fact that he was appointed to act for over 14 years as a prisons officer II, and no staff reports had been prepared for over 15 years.
Bypassed for promotion
Similarly, the man who could have risen to be the first Indo-Trini Commissioner of Prisons, Khimraj Bissessar, was discriminated by being constantly bypassed for promotion in the senior levels of the prisons service under Lalla’s chairmanship. He was bypassed because the PSC unquestioningly rubber-stamped the recommendations of the Prisons Commissioner.
The then-director, Ms Jean Roseman, conceded in court that Bissessar was, in fact, treated unfairly, and this led to a landmark judgment in his favour.
Before going to court, both Rajkumar and Bissessar had written several letters complaining about the injustice inflicted upon them, and begged Lalla to intervene. Haridath Maharaj was bypassed for promotion to the office of Transport Commissioner in favour of Ruben Cato, despite the fact that he has been acting in that office for almost four years without complaint.
It is untrue to suggest that his qualification consists of only two O-Levels. Mr Maharaj, like so many other public officers, pursed numerous courses in the public service which were designed to qualify transport officers for promotion in that division. Mr Maharaj successfully completed numerous courses, and was elevated through the ranks until he became eligible for the post of Transport Commissioner.
Assuming that the PSC was correct about Maharaj’s lack of qualifications, however, it is a serious indictment on the commission that they would have appointed Maharaj to act as the nation’s Transport Commissioner for over three years (during which time he received excellent staff reports) in the first place. Is the PSC in the habit of appointing unqualified people to act in senior offices for such a prolonged period? And if Mr Cato was so better-qualified, why did the commission not appoint him to act, instead of Mr Maharaj, in the first place.
With respect to the PSC’s boast about Mr Cato’s degree, Mr Cato was allowed to pursue a three-year degree at the UWI as a full-time student despite the fact that he never obtained the necessary approval for study leave. He therefore continued to draw his salary as a public officer even though he was, in fact, pursuing his degree as a full-time student at the UWI. This is a violation of the Civil Service Regulations that ought to have led to disciplinary action. Mr Cato was instead rewarded with a promotion. Are Indian public officers (who complain about discrimination in the selective granting of study leave) equally entitled to pursue full-time degrees at the UWI without the approvals for study leave whilst they continue to receive their salary without threat of disciplinary action?
Publish statistics
With respect to the PSC’s claim that there is no discrimination against Indian officers rising to the senior levels in the public service, publish statistics regarding the ethnic composition of the hierarchy in the public service from the level of chief technical officer and head of department upwards, so that the population can judge for itself whether there is an ethnic imbalance.
And assuming that Maharaj was not suitably-qualified, I ask, what about the cases of Devant Maharaj, Feroza Ramjohn and Ganga-Persad Kissoon, where they were all recommended for higher office because they were the most qualified and experienced candidates and had, in fact, topped the relevant promotion interviews but were unceremoniously bypassed in favour of non-Indian public servants?
The PSC should take a leaf out of President Richards’ book (who immediately invited the Indo-Trinbago Equality Council (ITEC) to a meeting at his residence) and invited ITEC to meet to have constructive and meaningful dialogue instead of wasting public servants’ tax money on useless advertisements. This money could be better utilised to publish apologies at our long overdue meeting.
By Anand Ramlogan
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The PSC has long been rubber stamping the recommendations made... Anand might not appreciate how the Civil Service works, not having been a part of it himself...
Once a person is within the system, he is victim to the whims and biases of his supervisors/managers. Rarely would one find a manager who is actually glad to see an employee progress, as I had with my first manager at SFGH.
Instead, one would likely meet someone like my second manager, at POSGH, who entered the Civil Service with a school leaving certificate and therefore could not compose a simple 5 line letter. He had to have it done for him. He was intensely threatened when anyone came along better educated than himself, and of course, to retain his 'power', he surrounded himself with brown nosers of every calibre.
Still, good, bad or ugly, it is these managers who recommend for the posts and that recommendation is rubber stamped by the PSC who are not in a position to determine the qualifications of the candidate, or even his work record. The PSC meets once in a while, goes along with the recommendation because it has thousands of these to do...
What do I mean by thousands? Well, every single clerk, attendant, driver, etc is required to be placed in a 'vacancy' and the PSC is the authority to do it. Every single person who works in the civil Service has to be placed there by the PSC. I am not sure if any 'extra' time is given to those at higher levels, like Feroza Ramjohn... but one can see that the PSC simply cannot function as both an authority and an investigative body...
That being said, I see, and agree with Anand's point that the ad was distasteful in the best of circumstances...
...as a country we can have all the laws and legislation put into place in Parliament, but this alone will not eradicate racial bias and discrimination within a system...one cannot legislate people's mind no more than we can legislate against people's thinking...!
...as a people, our leaders from the very top right down has to demonstrate by deeds and actions that discrimination is unacceptable, and has to put it into practice daily and consistently, with the necessary consequences for those who violate the rights of individuals and practice any form of discrimination...the Government and its leaders should be accountable for shouldering this responsibility ...! ..but if the very Government and its Leaders show contempt on a frequent basis, then those charged with carrying out and administrating the very Policies of the Government would only follow suit those actions and signals being emitted by the Leaders from the top down...!
...so yes, Jumbie, the rubber stamping continues unabated to reflect policies that are condoned and considered acceptable by the Government regime of the day...after all what is there to stop them from this deplorable practice, especially when the Leaders themselves practice it and there are no consequences for their actions, even if it is exposed to the public and brought out in plain daylight, that their actions are considered racially discriminating...even if these are confirmed by the courts of the land...!
...as Anand suggested statistics to "prove" or "disprove" that racial discrimination is not being practiced...in this regard one would have to take a closer look at some of the known facts absent of firm numbers and by the same analysis, arrive at some very interesting conclusions..?
...take for example, that the majority of doctors registered in our island ..some 80% are Indo-Trinis...as was recently published in our newspapers...yet those at the top of the civil service in the Medical Institutions, the majority holding those top posts are Afro-Trinis...would one consider that strange and defies logic...?
...if one would consider that the "majority" of the top academic performers in our land are also Indo-Trinis but the majority of the top civil servants are Afro-Trinis...does that not also defy logic and be considered very strange...especially when the "majority" of school drop-outs are also Afro-Trinis, it would defy sound reasoning and logic, would'nt it...?
...if one would consider that the "majority of crimes and criminals" are identified daily as being committed by Afro-Trinis, disproportionate to the rest of the population...and that the "majority" of businesses are owned and operated by non-Afro-Trinis...it defies any rational thinking to believe or conclude that the "majority of our country's top civil servants" would therefor emerge from such a small pool of the rest of elite Afri-Trinis, unless there is the existence of blatant racial discrimination, to ensure they are placed and remain in positions of power and authority, and that these very actions are acceptable to our Government of the day, if in fact it is not also promoted and condoned by them also...!
...in most democratic countries that practice diversity and equity in the workplace as well as in their sociery as a whole, laws are enacted and actively applied to remove and prevent discrimination of any and every kind, including racial discrimination...and the governments are also actively seen to be enforcing those laws in practice...this does not seem to be the case in our land at thise time...and laws alone will not foster this change...!
...it is time the Government take a leadership role in doing so...but from my viewpoint, that would be asking too much from this regime...especially when they themselves practice Nepotism and various forms of Discrimination on a daily basis...and shows utter contempt and disregard for the people at the same time...since they just don't care...!
...so who is going to initiate change of attitudes and behaviour, which includes racial discrimination, certainly not this government, as they have shown that don't have the credibility to do so...they can't suck and blow at the same time...or could they..?
...so don't hold your breath...racial bias and dismination is not the new norm..."it is the norm"...so no kind of changes to our system will be coming anytime soon...more rubber stamping still required...yes...?!
...goodluck...Trini.t.o.o