-say laws were breached

SEVERAL members of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), on Monday, officially declared a protest against the recently held Annual General Meeting (AGM) and election of office bearers for the credit union.

The faction said it is protesting on the grounds that the April 11 elections breached the Cooperative Societies Act, Chapter 88:01, which governs all credit unions in Guyana. They did not state specifically which parts of the act were breached.

At a press conference held at the GPSU’s Regent and Shiv Chanderpaul Drive headquarters, GPSU Vice-President, Dawn Gardner, said that the faction had not yet decided on the way forward.
“After this press conference we will put our heads together and will determine the way forward, on what we are going to do. We as a team have to sit together,” Gardner related.
She noted, however, that the GPSU will be issuing a correspondence to the Ministry of Labour (MoL), the government authority that has oversight for cooperative societies.

Gardner was joined at the head table by former Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union (GPSCCU) Chairperson, Patricia Went, and members, Veira Naughton and Ivelaw Henry. The quartet is part of a 15-member team led by GPSU President Patrick Yarde, which had contested the elections.

Yarde was not present at Monday’s press conference.
Yarde’s team is challenging the win by all 15 members of a team led by former Commissioner of Guyana Lands and Survey Commission (GLSC), Trevor Benn. Benn was previously Chairman of an Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the GPSCCU that was put in place in 2018 when the Committee of Management led by Went was removed.
Prior to the elections, the GPSU side had called for Benn to be removed.

Asked why the GPSU team waited some two weeks before challenging the results of the elections, Gardner noted that the team was busy gathering its evidence to put forward its case.
In a statement read by Henry, the members are questioning several changes made for the 2021 elections, including the choice to have the AGM held virtually and for voting to be partially done virtually.

In addition to the virtual voting, polling stations were created in each administrative region as opposed to voting being done in a central location and transportation being provided to persons wishing to attend.

They also noted concerns over the lack of a voters’ list and the amount of notice that was given ahead of the AGM and elections.
“The notice of the AGM and agenda was first published once in the print media on Wednesday, 31st March, 2021. Eligible members interested in contesting elected positions were only given one day’s notice, where a notice was issued on March 31, 2021 and nominations opened and closed on April 1, 2021,” Henry relayed as he read from the prepared statement.
The elections saw members of the credit union voting for members who were vying for a spot on the 12-member Committee of Management (CM) and three-member Supervisory Committee (SC).

Henry noted that discrepancies on elections day included the omission of himself and another GPSU nominee, Loren Parks, from the ballot for the CM. He said they were instead listed as nominees for the SC. It was also alleged that their team member, Alexander Kempton, who was nominated for membership on the SC, was also omitted from that ballot.

At the GPSCCU elections, though nominees contested the elections as teams, electors do not vote for a singular list of candidates, but instead must vote for each team member, individually.
Apart from having issues with the elections, the four protesting members also stated that they were not in agreement with the rate of dividends that was declared to be paid out for the period 2011 – 2020, as well as the procedures behind the decision for the credit union to begin issuing car loans and mortgages.

Following the elections it had been announced that the credit union would be paying out over $285 million in dividends at a rate of 10.75 per cent beginning from April 19, 2021. Members were previously paid an interim dividend of three per cent for the period 2011 – 2013 with an expectation that they would be paid the balance at a later date.

It was also announced that as early as the month of May, members would be able to get up to $5 million for car loans, and up to $15 million for mortgages at an interest as low as 1 to 3 per cent.