Dear Editor,
That the New Building Society is holding its 68th Annual General Meeting in Berbice this Saturday is no surprise. Under pressure from members at a special meeting in September 8 last year called by concerned members in the wake of a $69 million fraud on the society, Vice-Chairman Dr Nanda Gopaul had advised members against trying to vote out the directors because “we have Regions Five and Six”. With four vacancies on the board, it has now become necessary for the remaining directors – Messrs. McDoom, Seepaul Narine, Steve Bovell and Dr Gopaul – to pull out all the stops to prevent “outsiders” getting on the Board.
They refuse to tell long-standing member Ms Eileen Cox, who has nominated one of two persons nominated by concerned members, who the other nominees as directors are. Ms Cox, who is 90 years old, was told she must go to Berbice if she wants to know. That is insulting and disgraceful and is a shame on the society.
Similarly, the chairman of the group of concerned members which has been lobbying for better governance and accountability in the society was told by the director/secretary that he could not give any assurance that the several issues tabled by the group would be placed on the agenda.
In a press release the directors claim that the decision to go to Berbice is a response to a petition from 275 Berbicians. Yet without any authority under the law or the rules of the society and to frustrate members from Demerara, they insist on proxies being lodged 96 hours before the meeting.
Forced to respond to an obviously leaked statement about the reasons for the resignation of two board members, Attorney-at-Law Leon Gunn-Rockliffe and Mr David Yhann, a long-time friend of Dr Gopaul, they now offer a convoluted justification for their questioned action over a multi-million dollar contract they propose to issue.
The directors claim that their action is in the interest of the members. Yet their own 45-page report says not a word about the contract or the resignations. It would be good though, if the directors who have resigned would issue a statement to be read at the meeting providing the reasons for their resignation. They owe it to the members who voted for them.
Long denying any potential loss to the society arising from the withdrawal of money from the account of a member, who successfully lobbied the chairman and the then director/secretary (ag) to get a meeting at the CIOG, the directors test shareholders’ ability to read financial statements and discover the fact that the society has to bear a loss of $73 million ($69 million capital and interest $4 million). The directors have conveniently forgotten their agreement with concerned members that a forensic audit was a good idea to reassure members of the safety of their money with the NBS. As recently as two weeks ago, we had to reassure more than one member attending a concerned members’ meeting that the money in their accounts was not at risk.
While remaining committed to the development of good practice in the society, we will not be attending the meeting in Berbice in protest not only at the conduct of the directors but also because we have no faith that Chairman McDoom will conduct the meeting any more fairly than he chaired the meeting in September 2007 when he improperly refused to entertain any motion from the very members who had requisitioned the meeting.
Yours faithfully,
Andaiye
Chris Ram
