Credit unions have been granted up to May 1 to deliver their financial statements to the Co-operatives Division for them to be audited.
On February 8, Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir issued an ultimatum to the management of all credit unions that had not had their financial affairs audited by Ministry appointed auditors within the last four years and said that they had two weeks to report to the division or risk facing severe penalties.
When Stabroek News contacted the Acting Chief Co-operatives Development Officer Kareem Abdul Jabar, he said that all credit unions were now required to submit their financial affairs to the Co-operatives Division of the Labour Ministry by May 1. These accounts will be subsequently audited by external auditors, Jabar explained. He said that the time frame was extended to allow these unions to get their affairs in order. He stated that records show that out of 48 registered credit unions in the country, 25 are supposed to be functioning in some way.
He said that so far, the department has appointed auditors for three credit unions namely: the Guyana Defence Force Credit Union, the Kitty Women’s Union and the City of Georgetown Credit Union.
Jabar, however, added that the task of his department is challenging since it is affected by inadequate personnel. He, however, maintained that these staff members were working assiduously to fulfill their tasks.
NAACIE
Meanwhile, the liquidation process of the financially-troubled NAACIE credit union has successfully gotten underway and is almost near completion its liquidator Heston Rodrigues has said.
According to Rodrigues, the process started on March 19, after a short period where members were asked to submit claims, which were subsequently verified. Rodrigues said that 106 persons submitted claims during this period. So far, of that number, 100 have received their payments. Each person who submitted a claim would have received 80 percent of their ordinary savings, the liquidator said.
Rodrigues stated that the total ordinary savings available was $ 980, 533 and that out of this amount $ 784, 426. 40 was available to pay the members. He explained that some of the money would have been used to cover the expenses related to the liquidation process.
The NAACIE credit union was officially dissolved on October 13, last year following consultations between the Labour Ministry and the NAACIE leadership. Acting Chief Co-operatives Development Officer Jabar then issued a statement saying that the union had been closed under Section 38(1) of the Co-operative Societies Act, Chapter 88:01. Officials from the Co-operatives Division have said that the credit union was badly mismanaged for a long period of time, which General Secretary of NAACIE Kenneth Joseph also said.
Rodrigues, meanwhile, disclosed that some people are still submitting claims and that these may be awarded provided that more money is recovered. He stated that in his role as liquidator, he is still trying to recover funds from persons who owe the credit union money. He said that he had written to two persons who together reportedly had owed in excess of $500,000 to the credit union in loans. But he said one of these two persons has subsequently provided seemingly creditable evidence to dispute these allegations.
The other member, Rodrigues said, is challenging the amount that the credit union says she owes. The liquidator said that he is trying to get to the bottom of that matter as soon as possible. This would involve him checking the records of the two persons against the records of the credit union.
Meanwhile, Rodrigues said that he is also trying to recover in excess of $4 million which the credit union had in special savings. However, the likelihood of this happening appears to be dim. So far, the members of the union have not received any of their special savings.
The liquidator also said that for some reason, persons were coming to him and blaming him for the dire state of the credit union when he was in no way at fault. “I am only here to tidy up the mess, I did not create it,” he said.
The state of credit unions has attracted the attention of the Labour Ministry and efforts are being made to offer better supervision of these entities. Consequently, the Ministry has ordered audits as part of new measures to resuscitate several of them.
A source within the Ministry had told this newspaper that only 12 of the local credit unions could be said to be functioning effectively.
