…members call for protest action, removal of IMC

EXECUTIVES of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) on Thursday called out the government-appointed Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union (GPSCCU) to produce the evidence to show mismanagement by the previous management team.

“It ought to be established what was being done wrong for you to have taken action. As far as I’m aware, there was no justification for what was done,” said GPSU President Patrick Yarde, speaking before a gathering of some 200 members at the GPSU headquarters.
“It’s been [six] months, I think it is time to bring out all the fraud and irregularities. I do not believe that all that we were told is everything.”

Those present called for a protest outside of the GPSCCU headquarters on Hadfield Street, and a petition to be signed by members calling for the ousting of the IMC. This comes even as the IMC announced that they are in the process of paying out over $100 million in dividends to members.

The current IMC was installed at the GPSCCU last May by the Ministry of Social Protection, due to the “unsatisfactory” performance of the previous management team, which at the time was being led by Chairperson Patricia Went.

Went was also present at Thursday’s GPSU meeting. The GPSU noted that they are currently engaging lawyers on the way forward.  A major concern to those GPSCCU members gathered last evening was the processing time for loans and the fact that members from as far as Linden and Berbice now have to come to Georgetown to process their applications, whereas in the past those services would be taken to those areas.

“Is two passage you have to pay,” cried a member from Linden, noting that after making their requests, members would have to travel back to the city to uplift their payments.
Members also complained about the need for too many guarantors– as many as six– which members have difficulties sourcing– before they can access their loans. Yarde said the previous management team was in the process of installing a system that would’ve done away with the need for guarantors, but never got a chance to implement.

Some members were not happy that the dividends to be paid will be three per cent, asking for a comparison with what was paid in the past. GPSCCU members have not been paid dividends since 2010. The non-payment of dividends was one of the chief complaints by the ministry in their removal of the management team.

However, Yarde contends that the removal of the management team in essence has to do with their refusal to pay over some $49 million in retroactive contributions to the Audit and Supervision Fund for the years 2002-2013.

According to Yarde, the credit union is mandated to pay over contributions to the fund; those payments,however, have been a matter of contention for some years now, until 2013.This was the year when the then Minister of Labour NK Gopaul waived all subsequent payments, save for an annual payment of $500,000 to the Guyana National Cooperatives Union Limited. However, the waiver did not start until 2013, and the Ministry of Social Protection is requesting monies owed prior to that. However, Yarde argues that audits for 2002-2010 were already completed and accepted and should not now be amended to include monies owed to the Audit and Supervision Fund.

In 2017, Chief Cooperatives Development Officer Perlina Gifth wrote to the GPSCCU auditors, Maurice Solomon and Company, requesting that they amend the 2011-2013 audits to include monies owed to the Audit and Supervision Fund. The AGM could not be held until the 2011-2013 amended audits were accepted by the management committee and the money paid over. Yarde said the management team maintained that they were “not paying one cent.”

However, Gifth wrote to inform that approval for the 2014-2016 audits would only be given after the 2011-2013 amended audits were accepted. The AGM could not be held until the audit was approved, and the dividends could not be paid over until the AGM was held. However, since the IMC has taken over and paved the way for the paying out of the dividends, Yarde and company are now calling on the IMC to hold the AGM if they believe they have the backing of the members.