–close to $2 billion collected from teachers unaccounted for
APPROXIMATELY $2B collected from teachers by the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) is unaccounted for given the fact that the books of the union have not been audited by the Auditor General’s office over the last 35 years.
The Auditor General’s office on Friday issued a statement which noted that “the last Financial Statement submitted by the Guyana Teachers Union to the Audit Office of Guyana for audit was in respect to 1989 and no subsequent Financial Statement has since been submitted.”
The statement from the Auditor General followed one issued by the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority, which revealed that the GTU last filed its financial returns 20 years ago.
A brief statement from the registry noted that it received queries from the media about the audited financial statements of the GTU and in examining the records, it found that “Annual Returns required by Section 35 of the Trade Unions Act, Cap. 98:03 to be filed annually by registered trade unions was last filed by the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) for the year ending 31st of December, 2004, on the 31st of March, 2005.”
Under this Act, unions are required to submit a “general statement of the receipts, funds, effects, and expenditure to the Registrar before the 1st May in every year and shall show fully its assets and liabilities at the date…”
The Act states that every trade union which “fails to comply with or acts in contravention of this section, and also every officer of the union so failing, shall each be liable on summary conviction to a fine of seventy-five dollars for each offence.”
In its 2004 audited report, the GTU collected over $40 million in dues.
Union dues are automatically deducted from the salaries of the teachers and handed over to the GTU. But the government recently said it will stop doing so and has cited the lack of accountability by the union.
The GTU is currently engaged in a countrywide strike action which the government said is illegal because talks about increase in salaries and other benefits did not break down with the Ministry of Education.
