Dear Editor,
Please allow me to respond to letter by Mr. Patrick Mentore, published in the letter column of the Kaieteur News and Stabroek News on March 20, 2024. In the said letter there were a few things that I believe warrant a response:
The membership of the Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union Ltd stands at 27,574. This is according to the just concluded audit, ending December 31, 2022, which was conducted by R. Seebarran and Company. At the beginning of 2022, the figure was 25,538, admissions during that year were 2,345, and dismissals, resignations, and death during the year were 309, hence the total as stated above. This has been confirmed as correct by the Chief Executive Officer of the credit union, who further stated that of the total number, 21,183 were active members, 2,988 were dormant, 2,637 were delinquent, and 766 were inactive.
Despite Mr. Mentore’s persistent harping that the Committee of Management was ousted by a ‘resounding vote of no confidence’ at the March 2, 2024, Special General Meeting ordered by the High Court, he has yet to furnish the requested information to substantiate the validity of the conducted election. Let me be pellucid, at the risk of being redundant. The information must be provided in order to dispel the allegations made that regulations 17 and 21 of the Cooperatives Societies Act, Chapter 88:01 were not adhered to. It is incumbent upon Mr. Mentore to provide this vital bit of information since he was appointed by the Court to be the chairman of the meeting.
It was never my intention to ‘sully the character of Mr. Mentore’ as stated. My response was to provide the truth with regard to what was reported in the Stabroek News in relation to the matter at hand. If the reporter misrepresented what was said to him in his article, then it becomes a matter to be addressed by Mr. Mentore and the newspaper.
Finally, in Mr. Mentore’s letter, one cannot fail to notice a subtle diatribe against the Chief Cooperatives Development Officer and the department. Even though I am uncertain what his agenda is, I would like to make it crystalline that the CCDO and the department will stand beside the law that governs cooperative societies in Guyana.
Until the information I requested is provided, I consider this matter closed.
Yours sincerely,
Janaknauth Panchu
Chief Cooperatives Development Officer
