A meeting to swear in the new executive committee of the public service credit union was disrupted yesterday by dissidents and the court might be approached again on the festering dispute.
Court action was signalled by one of the newly elected members of the Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union Limited (GPSCCUL) Christopher Thompson. He and the other members of the new committee were elected at a controversial court-ordered Special General Meeting on Saturday.
Thompson who is also one of the attorneys representing the credit union deemed yesterday’s “melee” involving former members of the executive, Karen Vanslutyman-Corbin, Ruth Howard and Saskia Eastman-Onwuzirike as “embarrassing and crass”.
He told reporters outside of the credit union’s office in Hadfield Street, Georgetown that the disruptive behaviour demonstrated by the former executive committee members was unwarranted and constituted an attempt to undermine the “democratic” process.
On a live-streamed Facebook video, Vanslutyman-Corbin and Eastman-Onwuzirike were heard saying “The elections were null and void”. They also directed vituperative remarks towards the newly-elected committee.
Eastman-Onwuzirike shouted vociferously “get out! get out!”at Patrick Mentore who was elected Vice Chairman of the credit union.
At one point Eastman-Onwuzirike sat on the head table while the meeting was in progress and continued to shout “y’all didn’t had a quorum the elections was null and void”.
Vanslutyman-Corbin, Eastman-Onwuzirike and Howard were seen in the video banging the tables incessantly with water bottles and a Lysol spray can.
They also played soca music loudly while the several of the newly-elected members were taking their oaths. They accused the newly elected members of illegally taking power.
Despite the presence of police officers, the contretemps continued and the elected members had to exit the boardroom after the music became unbearable.
Vanslutyman-Corbin in the presence of a police officer said that even if the elected members are to be duly sworn in this has to be done with the consent of the Ministry of Labour.
She argued that since this process was not followed the elected committee of management can’t be recognized as a legitimate body of the public service credit union. Leslyn Noble an attorney at law was also in support of Vanslutyman-Corbin.
Thompson recapped that on March 31st, 2023 Members of the GPSCCUL had filed contempt proceedings against the union’s management committee for flouting a court order concerning holding a special general meeting.
Credit union members Mehalai McAlmont, Keith Marks and Natasha Durant-Clements argued that while the management committee did comply with the order of the court to hold the special general meeting by the time stipulated, it failed to do so under the specific guidelines which had been set by the Court.
In their contempt application, McAlmont, Marks and Durant-Clements had called out the management
committee which was led by Vansluytman-Corbin for attempting to “frustrate” the process; and have “in all of their doing showed a clear intent not to comply” with the court order.
On February 6th this year, based on an application by Trevor Benn, Patrick Mentore and Rajdai Jagarnauth, Justice Navindra Singh ordered that the elections be held no later than March 10 this year and that $17m be set aside to stage the Special General Meeting (SGM).
Fast-tracking to yesterday’s incident, Thompson said that Vanslutyman-Corbin and team on Saturday tried to disrupt the electoral process by making loud noises and deeming it illegal.
He said that following Saturday’s raucous meeting, the elected committee of management informed the court of what transpired and also noted that a meeting would be conducted yesterday at 8 am to swear in its members. The dissidents had other ideas.
While frustrated at having to go to court again, the GPSCCUL member said this is the only way to protect the rights of the credit union’s elected committee.
Mentore told the press that he is happy that the behaviour demonstrated by the former executive committee members of the union was recorded, which will serve as supporting evidence before the court. He lamented that a citizen from Mabaruma who came to transact business at the union was prevented from doing so after the gates were reportedly locked.
This newspaper understands from the elected Vice Chairman that other citizens came to conduct business as well and were denied entry.
Mentore said that he indeed received complaints of this nature and deemed these actions callous, malicious and unconscionable.
The GPSCCUL in a notice said that its Office at Lot 45 Hadfield Street, Georgetown, was closed yesterday to the public and apologized for any inconvenience caused.
According to results provided by the GPSCCUL on Saturday night, Trevor Benn secured 1810 votes, followed by Patrick Mentore with 1636, Vanessa Kissoon with 1608, Mehalai Mc Almont with 1504, Christopher Thompson with 1504, John Anderson with 1495, Eslyn Harris with 1490, Judah Louisy with 1408, Kirk Fraser with 1403, Candace Enmore with 1255, Rajdai Jaggernauth with 1201 and Beverly De John with 1133.
Voting by thousands took place both online and in person at the Critchlow Labour College, where over 300 persons were present to vote physically, while ROSE IT Services Limited, a Trinidadian-based IT company, facilitated the platform for online voters.
Stabroek News reported that Vanslutyman-Corbin, whose faction opposed Benn, told the media on Saturday that there were some 300 persons present at the Critchlow Labour College auditorium for in-person participation in the meeting and Rose IT Services had advised that the online platform could only accommodate up to 3,000 persons online.
She also argued that the motion that was moved to prohibit her and eight others from being re-elected was illegal since the time had already passed. “After one hour of calling the meeting to order and there was no quorum, the proceedings are in violation of the law [and] anything that happens after now is illegal”, she said.
The former Chairperson of the credit union, then made her way to the front to the Returning Officer, Leyland Lucas, to emphasize her concerns, but was told by Lucas that the proceedings, were legal and that the quorum was met and therefore the voting process must proceed.
The first motion moved was to recall the management committee with 670 persons agreeing, 26 disagreeing, 17 abstaining and 52 not voting at all.
The second motion sought to have nine members prohibited from being reelected to any management position on the committee. 699 members voted yes, 32 members voted no, 33 abstained from voting and 16 members did not participate.
The third and final motion sought the election of a new committee of management 826 persons voted yes, 7 voted no, and 4 abstained from voting while 42 persons did not participate.
