The Committee of Concerned Members of the New Building Society (NBS) has expressed concern at some of the practices of the society and that the Annual Report has not been submitted to members in spite of the fact that the annual general meeting (AGM) is less than a week away.
In a release, the committee said that it met to review developments at NBS, its performance for the past year as well as the AGM, which has been fixed for next Saturday at the Cotton Tree Primary School, West Coast Berbice.
According to a press release, the committee has noted with some concern that the Annual Report which members will be called upon to approve is yet to be made available. The group said “this is particularly troubling in the light of the reported substantial reduction in profits and an exchange loss of more than $200 million.” The committee believes that the performance of the society cannot be separated from the quality of governance which is at an unprecedented low level, the statement added.
The committee said it believes that the board is taking advantage of its own refusal to be licensed under the Financial Institutions Act which would have brought some financial discipline to the NBS.
According to the committee, the disclosure that the board proposes to fire the long-serving auditors have added to fears that the “body wishes to operate with as little sunlight as possible with the most recent and costly, example being the purchase of $1.5 billion of bonds in the Berbice Bridge Company from CLICO.”
The release added that the committee is calling on the Bank of Guyana to bring the NBS under statutory regulation and has written to the Governor of the Bank of Guyana asking for an early meeting to discuss matters of concern to the members.
The committee has decided to hold a general meeting of members on Tuesday at 5.30 pm at St Stanislaus College to discuss their concerns and to make decisions on how the Demerara members in particular should respond to the meeting.
