THE Department of Labour of the Ministry of Social Protection is working to resuscitate democratic co-operatives across Guyana, and youths are to be involved in the process, Minister with responsibility for Labour within the Ministry of Social Protection, Keith Scott, has said.

Earlier in the year, Minister Scott had said the ministry was working on crafting a policy to propel the cooperative society movement, the Government Information Agency (GINA) had reported.

GINA said Minister Scott had met with members of the co-operative societies in Region Three, at a meeting held at Goed Intent Village, WBD on Monday, and had detailed that the ministry plans to visit all the co-operative societies to assist them in restructuring their systems; and those that are able to manage themselves properly would be assisted further.

However, in the case of those that are corrupted, interim management councils would be set up to ensure systems fall in line, Minister Scott explained. He said further that the ministry plans to bring on stream thrift societies and children’s credit unions.

The minister plans to have another meeting with members of the co-operative societies of Region Three, since he did not consider one meeting enough to cover the issues of that region.

There are currently more than 1,000 functioning co-operatives in Guyana, all of which are currently being audited. “What we need to have in place is total accountability: auditing accounts that must be audited, and a cooperation existing between the league and each co-operative; because we need to understand that we have obligations to the league, we need to understand that we have obligations to the members,” Minister Scott is quoted as saying.