THE Ministry of Labour dealt with several complaints and provided training and supervision to many co-operative societies during the year in its ongoing programme to support the strengthening of the sector.

This was disclosed by Minister of Labour, Dr. Nanda Gopaul during a recent media briefing on the work of his ministry during this year.
He said that during last year, the ministry registered four new co-operative societies and 30  new friendly societies.
He said that the ministry had also decided that 250 co-operative societies which have been defunct for as much as one and two decades will be struck off the register.
He however debunked suggestions that co-operatives are on the wane saying:”We cannot just wish away co-operatives.”
He said that the assets of the co-operative movement at the moment amount  to nearly $15 billion.When considered against other financial institutions,  it is  the fourth or fifth largest financial system in the country.
He said too that there are many highly successful co-operatives in operation.These include  some in the rice and the sugar industries as well as  the credit unions,  particularly those of the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) .
These have been monitored and will be monitored on an ongoing basis to ensure that they adhere to reporting and auditing requirements.
With respect to the 250 to be scrapped, these would have been in the books for a long time as defunct and the deadline for them to re-establish themselves had passed.
Many, he said, had become defunct because they had outlived their usefulness, in that they started as co-operatives for specific functions which now no longer exist.
He mentioned the La Bonne Intention ( LBI) Supervisors Housing Coop as an example, explaining that all the members  have built their homes and received their titles  and their land is now being serviced by the Neighborhood Democratic Council.
“They see no interest in continuing as a co-operative,” he said.
With respect to some other defunct ones, he said: “We are working to revamp some of them, but those which cannot be redeemed will be struck off roll.”
Some of these lands have been occupied by agricultural co-operatives.
He said that the Ministry of Labour has  asked the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission to repossess these  lands and reallocate them  to  persons  beneficially occupying them.
He said: “Nobody will be disenfranchised of their land. We are going to ensure that care is taken that those who are farming the lands or have livestock on the land will be given individual leases instead because very often the management of the co-ops pose  a challenge.”

The ministry also had audits done to 42 co-operatives–most of them are major ones–and had released these reports.
It had also released 47 out of 50 audited reports on friendly societies, cancelled two coops and conducted investigations into   three cooperatives  and three friendly societies.
Staffers of the Cooperative Division conducted 61 field visits  to co-operatives and nine to friendly societies.
They also conducted one training programme for the division’s staff as well as  the staff of some of the co-operative societies in keeping with the  supervisory and support role of the Ministry of Labour, Gopaul said.

(By Clifford Stanley)