High Court Judge, Navindra Singh has ordered that Trevor Benn, Patrick Mentore, and Rajdai Jagarnauth perform managerial functions of the Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union (GPSCCU) which were being held by Karen Vansluytman-Corbin, Gillian Pollard, and Ruth Howard.
This is according to a press release from attorney Roysdale Forde SC, who noted that the Judge’s order is to be carried out until the Fixed Date Application before him has been fully heard and determined.
According to the release, Vansluytman-Corbin, Pollard, and Howard have been directed by the Judge not to conduct any business on behalf of the Union, until September 13th, 2023.
Further, they have been ordered to pay outstanding costs in the sum of $1,000,000 no later than the September 13th date, when the matter will be called again for continued hearing.
According to Forde, the Orders granted by the Court will ensure that “justice prevail in this matter;” adding that they will also “underscore the importance of compliance with Orders of Court.”
The case involves an ongoing feud in the GPSCCU where three of its members had petitioned the Court for declarations that Benn and Mentore are the credit union’s duly elected Chairman and Vice-Chairman, respectively, and that a Special General Meeting of Members ought to have been allowed on June 25th, of last year.
Back in October of 2022, Justice Singh declared that members of the GPSCCU were entitled to demand a special general meeting and refuted arguments of the union’s management committee—on which Vansluytman-Corbin sat as acting Chairwoman—that the request constituted a dispute.
After seeking to remove Benn, the management committee itself came under pressure when over 375 members moved for the removal of the entire body and the announcement of new elections within 14 days. That number had increased to nearly 2,000.
The committee and its members have been at loggerheads over a No-Confidence Motion the committee said it brought against Benn.
By way of a fixed date application (FDA), union members Mehalai McAlmont, Keith Marks and Natasha Durant-Clements through their attorney Forde, moved to the High Court seeking to have Benn, Mentore and other “duly” elected members of the management committee be so recognized.
That substantive matter is still to be determined by the Court.
Their challenge had come on the heels of one faction of the union advertising in the press objecting to a Special General Meeting of Members being called for June 25th last year by what is now being described a rival faction headed by Benn.
With thousands of members and in control of a large amount of money, the credit union has become embroiled in a bitter power struggle.
The actions of the committee triggered the ire of members, who voiced their disquiet, accusing the committee of being dictatorial.
According to members, they decided to go to court after their calls for a meeting to discuss concerns of members went unheard by the committee.
