Recently elected Vice Chairman of the Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union Ltd (GPSCCUL) Patrick Mentore said that he has provided the list of names of those who attended the Special General Meeting as well as a list of those who voted.
Mentore told the Sunday Stabroek that having heeded the request of Chief Cooperatives Development Officer of the Ministry of Labour Janaknauth Panchu regarding the information of persons who voted virtually and in person at the meeting, he was awaiting the outcome.
This comes in the wake of allegations by outgoing chairperson of the GPSCCUL Karen Vansluytman-Corbin that the special general meeting to elect a new management committee was unlawful.
Panchu, in a letter to the elected Vice Chairman, stated that unless the information requested was provided, he (Mentore) and other members “must refrain from assuming the duties of the Committee of Management or transact(ing) any business whatsoever on behalf of the credit union.”
Panchu asked Mentore to provide any further information which could substantiate that Regulations 17 and 21 of the Cooperative Societies Act were complied with. The meeting and election were held on March 2 this year.
Vanslutyman-Corbin and the members of the Committee of Management contended that both the meeting and the election were unlawful. They contended that that meeting amounted to a blatant disregard for Regulations of the Act as it did not have the quorum stipulated in Regulations 17 and 21, which they said were breached by court-appointed members Mentore, Trevor Benn and Rajdai Jagarnauth.
“There was no quorum established of approximately 6,538 in keeping with our total membership of 25,385 members,” a letter from Vanslutyman-Corbin and the members of the Committee of Management said.
Mentore told this newspaper that concerning the claim by Panchu that he had been advised that the membership of the GPSCCU stood at 25,000-plus, the principle applies that “a party who alleges a fact has the burden of proving it. A mere allegation will never suffice.
A mere allegation is not evidence, and he who alleges has the burden of proving. Therefore, it is for the complainants to produce the Register of Members as of February 29, 2024, to prove their claim.”
He said that Panchu’s apparent disinclination to acknowledge and sanction the Committee of Management for its dereliction and breach of the law as it relates to the maintenance of a Register of Members, and the disreputable public behaviour of the former members on March 4, was instructive.
Mentore also said that the refusal of the Committee of Management to have the register displayed in a prominent place, or to provide it to the court-appointed committee so that active members could be determined outside of dormant, deceased, delinquent, and resigned members was inexcusable.
“Right now, there are members who are unaware of their account numbers and status. Section 12 of the Cooperative Societies Act states inter alia, ‘Every registered society shall keep a copy of …a list of its members open to inspection, free of charge, at all reasonable times at the registered address of the society,’” Mentore said.
“Regulation 6 states that, ‘Every registered society shall keep a register (to be called the Register of Members) in which there shall be entered – (a) the name, address and occupation of each member and a statement of the shares, if any, held by him; (b) the date on which each member’s name was entered in the register; (c) the date on which any member ceased to be a member; and (d) the nominee, if any, appointed under Regulation 9.”
Mentore affirmed that Rule 20 states: “The society shall keep a register of its members in accordance with the provisions of Regulation 6 and the former committee members have been quoting Chapter 88:01 but seem to have conveniently forgotten their legal obligations under the law.”
