The division of cooperatives of the Ministry of Labour had major challenges in 2014 with the chance to change the Chief Co-operatives Officer and the appointment of Carol Halls and putting a new department in place.
GINA said that at an end-of-year press conference this week of the Ministry of Labour, it was noted that in 2014 a list of persons of 212 defaulting Co-op societies was published, and of that number 24 appealed to the Minister. According to GINA, a decision was then made to suspend the cancellations pending further investigations. Two Co-op and three friendly societies were cancelled in 2014. The Ministry has also investigated two friendly societies and three cooperatives with amendments to the rules, GINA said.
In terms of audits, 30 co-op societies with 28 reports and 46 friendly societies’ with 32 reports were released.
GINA reported that the Ministry is looking to recruit more regional co-op development officers to function more effectively and efficiently. In addition to the new Anti-Money Laundering Act which has kicked in and the new amendments which are coming in, GINA said that there will be a new compliance officer appointed, who will be working with the department and coordinating with the Bank of Guyana to ensure compliance with the Act.
