After seeking to remove its chairman Trevor Benn, the management committee of the public service credit union itself came under pressure on Saturday when the required number of members moved for the removal of the entire body and the announcement of new elections within 14 days.
The statutory meeting of the Guyana Public Service Co-operative Credit Union (GPSCCU) ended after members of the Management Committee then signalled their intention to lay an unknown motion after members – clearly in support of Benn – sought their removal.
On emerging from the meeting, the Management Committee’s members were greeted by angry credit union members who questioned their No-Confidence Motion against Benn and were vocal that they no longer want the Management Committee managing their affairs.
“The most important thing is to look after this chairmanship. We don’t want you and you have to go,” an angry union member told committee member Jermaine Hermanstine, who then rushed away after he was accosted by a group of mostly women who had gathered.
“We don’t want you. You got to go!” another female member screamed as Hermanstine walked away, while a senior yelled, “To hell was y’all”.
Key members of the 12-member committee are maintaining that their motion to boot Benn was successfully passed but Benn has dug in his heels and insists that he remains the substantive holder of the post.
The Management Committee is arguing that although booting the Chairman by way of a No-Confidence Motion may not be written in law it follows “international practice”. However, nearly 200 members of the credit union have countered their move and are using the rules to oust the entire committee and require it to call elections within 14 days.
This newspaper understands that on Saturday, the meeting was called to order and only two items on the agenda were addressed. These were the call to order and the reading of the minutes, following which a request was made to approve monies to purchase personal items for committee members who want to travel to an overseas meeting.
A management committee member, sources told this newspaper, rose to set all matters on the agenda aside to allow for “an important motion” they wished to lay.
Asked the content, none of the members would say and acting Chairman Patrick Mentore then adjourned the meeting.
Hemanstine said that the committee wanted to discuss getting loans for members. “What we wish to advise you guys is that what we want to do is to ensure your mortgages and car loans and them things that we continue to give you. Just as when I went in 2013 to the Annual General Meeting and I asked them to approved mortgages…
“Today’s meeting was unfortunate because several of us , we had a 1 pm appointment and we attempted to ask the chairman if the agenda could be suspended for us to deal with the pertinent issues, such as fixing the budget so that we could have loans and mortgages approved for this month and next month. And also we wanted to raise the whole issue surrounding …something of the whole structure of the organization that we wanted to fix. Before we had an opportunity to delve in, the Vice Chairman said the meeting is adjourned. So we are in an awkward position now where we don’t have money approved for people to get their mortgages,” he added.
A member who stood in front of him told him, “That issue is not important right now. The most important issue right now is to look after this chairmanship. Is not what y’all want is what we want and we don’t want y’all, especially you. You are the king instigator behind this thing. You are the king instigator behind this [motion of no confidence] and we want you to go,” she said.
One member, who did not give her name said that she was afforded the opportunity to speak with the committee but she is not satisfied with any of the responses given.
“They just dodging the issue. They want play with people money. I have been a member for over two decades and what is happening is very concerning. I am not convinced that they know what they are about. I asked what the basis was for the (no confidence motion) …was it debated. [They said] no it was not. I asked if the chairman was given the opportunity to defend himself and they said no,”
She said that she was told by the committee that they tried using social media to contact Benn and was not successful. Overall she said she thinks the motion of no confidence “is something personal” between the members and Benn.
When Benn emerged and was told what Hermanstine had said, he disputed it saying that it “makes no sense” since there was an already approved budget in place.
Neither Benn nor any of the Management Committee members contacted wanted to speak on record to this newspaper.
What remains unclear is what will happen at the union level, during the 14-day waiting period for the calling of elections by the Management Committee.
Under Section 16 of the Cooperative Societies Act, members could demand from the committee that a special general meeting be called. “A special meeting of members may be convened at any time by the committee; and on receipt of a demand stating the object of the proposed meeting signed by not less than one fifth of the members of the registered society, if such society is composed of not more than 100 members, or by twenty-five members if such society consists of more than one hundred members, it shall be the duty of the Chairman of the committee to convene such a meeting giving eight days’ notice. if the Chairman of the committee fails to convene the meeting within fourteen days from the receipt of a demand as aforesaid, the members applying for such a meeting will have the right to convene the meeting by notice which must contain the object of the proposed meeting and a statement to the effect that the meeting is convened on the failure of the Chairman of the committee to convene the meeting demanded…” it states.
The committee and its members have been at loggerheads over the No Confidence Motion it said was brought against Benn.
Last Monday, management committee secretary, Gillian Pollard, told a meeting of the credit union that the committee no longer supports Benn’s leadership and that he released confidential information while appearing on social media shows. This, the committee members said was a breach of the rules governing the credit union.
She stated that the relationship between the committee and Benn began to slide after he lobbied members of the Board to have him hold both the position of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Credit Union. The secretary of the Board disclosed that the suggestion was voted against since it was felt he would have been answerable only to himself and given ultimate power and unhindered authority.
However, Benn on Monday stated that it was never his intention to hold the post permanently, and he had explained to the committee that it was a temporary arrangement. He noted that there is currently a hearing in court on the transition from Secretary General to CEO.
Benn has said that he was surprised to learn of the move against him since it was planned without him being given notice and time to respond to the allegations therein, as would be required by law. “I was never told about a meeting, nor the outcome,” Benn had said.
He said that his position as Chairman is not an Executive Chair position and he has refused any subcommittee position “since I felt every committee member should be given an opportunity to sit on these sub committees.”
The GPSCCU is currently led by a committee which was elected on April 11. This committee comprises of members of an interim management committee (IMC) which was installed in 2018. This newspaper understands that they were given a mandate by approximately 1,000 of the credit union’s 23,000 membership.
In 2019, Benn was appointed as head of the IMC and had told Stabroek News that much development had taken place since the interim body was installed.
“I would say that we have taken the Credit Union to a new level and that is what is affecting the old management team…We inherited a system where there was a committee called the Modernisation Committee where members of the Management Committee were also members and collecting stipends as both, yet we have not seen what became modern under them,” Benn said then.
Prior to the installation of the IMC, the credit union’s management had accused then Junior Social Protection Minister, Keith Scott, of “financial bullyism” after he requested that the union pay over $49 million in retroactive contributions to an Audit and Supervision Fund for the years 2002 to 2013. The credit union held that it had been granted a waiver by former Minister of Labour, Nanda Gopaul and had said that Scott was obstructing the release of the 2011 to 2013 audit reports, therefore, blocking the holding of its AGM, and as a result, the payment of dividends to members. It was also stated that the ministry refused to audit the 2014 to 2016 records.
