Dear Editor,
After reading ‘This situation calls for an urgent forensic audit‘ by Emily Boatswain in the KN of June 11 in addition to letters by Mr Patrick E Mentore concerning the goings on in the Paradise Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society, it struck me that something is radically wrong there and it is being ignored at the highest levels. I speak as a former resident when I ask by what authority is the Ministry of Cooperatives permitted to install a nine-year-old interim body managed by the Chief Co-ops Officer? I sense the frustration in some of the letters because no one seems to be responding to the needs of that disorganized society. I for one would like to know when last an audit was done for that cooperative and what the benefits have been for its members. First of all, the Chief Co-ops Officer is not mandated in any form or fashion to manage the affairs of any cooperative society, so where did he get the power to have an interim body in place for nine years? More importantly what has the body achieved during that period in terms of development for Paradise? I share several writers’ sentiments when they speak about the lack of adequate facilities for residents to meet and discuss matters of importance to the community. I refused to return to Paradise after the 2005 floods because I had already seen that no one was willing to work for the betterment of the community. Now that people are coming forward they should get our support because we would be supporting ourselves. In fact some of the very people who wanted the ministry to come in because of mismanagement are now reluctant to put self-interest aside and are now on a quest to acquire more and more material things through the mismanagement of the society.
I think that the Minister should seek and be guided by the advice of a wider pool of experts on cooperatives to bring this situation under control. Dissolution as presently being sought by the current management is not the answer, since anyone would want to know what was occurring over the life the IMC. Is it because things are now getting tightened and accountability and transparency are being demanded that suddenly people are seeing dissolution as the only way out? Well I would like to be the first to disabuse them of that notion, because I don’t think that President Ramotar and Minister Gopaul would agree with that position if I read their public remarks on the issue of community development correctly. It is time that communities in this country with aspirations for a better life be given every opportunity to achieve this through cooperatives and not fall victim to the greedy and unscrupulous.
I join the call for a speedy audit to be done of the affairs of the Paradise Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society and a resolution of all contentious issues to put the body back into the hands of its members, in the same way action was taken with the GDF Co-operative Credit Union and Devonshire Co-operative.
Yours faithfully,
Carmen Grandison
