–Dr Jagdeo says; underscores hard-earned money collected as dues is not intended to ‘fat-fowl’ GTU’s Executives

WITH the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) representing the nation’s educators and one of the largest groups of public servants in the country, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, has said that teachers ought to hold the union more accountable.

Owing to the recent revelations about the union’s unaccountability, Dr Jagdeo, during a press conference at Freedom House on Thursday, shed some light on the subject.

“…Teachers have to hold the union more accountable. As I said before, if we take the purely legalistic approach, then the results would be one that we don’t want to contemplate at this point in time, because it ultimately ends with the de-recognition of the union and we don’t want to go that route,” the PPP General Secretary said.

Additionally, Dr Jagdeo said that the hard-earned money collected as dues is not intended to “fat-fowl” the Executives of the Union but instead benefit the teachers.

He said: “So, the teachers have to hold the union more accountable. It’s interesting that the entire scenario played out under APNU in 2018, similar to this,” while underscoring that those who were mum in that period are now suddenly vocal.

In 2018, under the previous APNU+AFC government, a letter was sent to the Auditor General’s Office by a concerned teacher under the subject “Request for audit into the management of funds paid to the Guyana Teachers’ Union.”

The PPP General Secretary did not mince his words while addressing the range of irregularities within GTU’s management, especially when it comes to finances.

It was reported that approximately $2 billion collected from teachers by the GTU is unaccounted for, according to the Auditor General’s Office.

Last Friday, the Auditor General’s office issued a statement: “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.”

Notably, the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority also issued a statement, which revealed that the GTU last filed its financial returns 20 years ago.

Amidst the union’s bold claims that they have audited statements, on Wednesday, the Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, debunked this.

“I’m concerned right now with the statement made that they have audited accounts… I am not aware of that because we are the auditors for the unions,” Sharma told the Guyana Chronicle, in an invited comment.

With the heightened concern from various sections of society, Sharma firmly remarked that he will be writing the GTU to produce these accounts they claim have been audited.

“Now they’re saying, making the claim that they have audited statements, they have audited statement, but we don’t know who the auditors are, and we don’t know why they don’t submit these statements…And then we’ve seen the Auditor General come out and say, ‘how come you have audited statements? I am in charge of auditing trade unions,’” Dr Jagdeo questioned while highlighting what he termed as a “huge credibility gap” within the union.

The GTU is currently engaged in a countrywide strike action which the government said is illegal because talks with the Ministry of Education about increases in salaries and other benefits did not break down.