THE Committee of Concerned members of the New Building Society met to review developments at the Society, its performance for the year 2008 and the Annual General Meeting fixed for Saturday April 25 at Cotton Tree Primary School, West Coast Berbice. This is the second time that the AGM has been fixed for a Berbice venue.

The Committee has noted with some concern that the Annual Report which members will be called upon to approve has not yet been made available. This is particularly troubling in the light of the reported substantial reduction in profits and an exchange loss of more than two hundred million dollars. The Committee believes that the performance of the Society cannot be separated from the quality of governance which is at an unprecedented low level.

The Committee believes that the Board is taking advantage of its own refusal to be licensed under the Financial Institutions Act which would have brought some financial discipline to the Society.

The disclosure that the Board proposes to fire the long-serving auditors have added to fears that the Board wishes to operate with as little sunlight as possible with the most recent and costly example being the purchase of $1.5B of Bonds in the Berbice Bridge Company from CLICO, the failed insurance company.

The Committee is calling on the Bank of Guyana to bring the Society under statutory regulation and has written the Governor of the Bank of Guyana asking for an early meeting to discuss matters of concern to the members.

The Committee has decided to hold a general meeting of members on Tuesday April 21 at 5.30 pm at St Stanislaus College to discuss their concerns and to make decision on how the Demerara members in particular should respond to the meeting.
CYRIL WALKER
Chairman
Committee of Concerned Members