By Lisa Hamilton
THE Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has arranged an important meeting with its members today to address their complaints on the operations of the Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union (GPSCCU).

Some members claim that under the GPSCCU’s Interim Management Committee (IMC) and management, they are unable to access their special savings or loans in a timely and efficient manner.

They are expected to meet today, Thursday, November 15 at 16:45hrs at the GPSU headquarters, 160 Regent Street and Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.

On Wednesday, the GPSU executives held a press briefing and detailed the situation, stating that it is as a direct result of the IMC and management installed by the purported Chief Cooperatives Development Officer (CCDO) of the Ministry of Social Protection.

“The GPSU considers the complaints to be serious, given that the challenges faced by members affect them economically, because of the onerous measures imposed upon them… the present operations of the GPSCCU require members to wait two and three days to receive withdrawals from their special savings, while members from out of town have to travel repeatedly to Georgetown when trying to apply for and access loans.

These experiences have resulted from backward actions taken which, apart from being unenlightened, are also insensitive to the circumstances of members,” a statement from the union said.

GPSU President Patrick Yarde added: “Some people go in and get it [special savings] immediately. Now, you have to wait two and three days to get it. The [previous] management committee had put systems in place where instead of members travelling from Linden, Essequibo and Berbice to come for loans, the team used to go up there with sufficient signatories so a loan used to be given and a cheque issued on the spot, because we recognise the economic situation that is taking place… now, that is not happening. Since the interim committee is there, we have not visited a single location [and] anyone who wants a loan would have to come to town.”

UNEASY
The union went on to state that after enduring such “burdensome measures”, some members are ultimately denied loans, while others have opted to resign from the credit union though encouraged against such action by the GPSU.

Yarde made it clear that the existing challenges are not as a result of any financial problems being experienced by the GPSCCU.

“There’s no financial constraint. The credit union is very, very sound financially… and I am not aware that the interim committee could take any action that would compromise that… and it is not indebted to anyone,” he said.

In dealing with the complaints, Yarde said that the GPSU is taking a “trade union approach.”

The union, he added, prides itself in being transparent and when its members make their complaints, the union will also check for the legitimacy and later decide on how it intends to move forward.

“This union, apart from being transparent, is a democratic organisation… after that meeting we’ll have to go to a constitutional body of the union which is the Executive Council which is meeting next weekend to determine a decision [only] then it becomes a legitimate decision for us to take action. There’s a process and we must conform to that process in terms of how we will deal with this matter,” Yarde said.

The IMC being fingered as the cause of the complications was appointed by the Social Protection Ministry earlier this year over concerns of poor performance on the part of the old management team.

The committee is now being headed by former Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Justice Prem Persaud.