The controversy-ridden elections for a new Management Committee of the GPSCCUL has taken another turn with disgruntled members complaining to the Ministry of Labour that the polls on Saturday violated rules.
On Monday, an attempt to swear-in the executive which was elected on Saturday was aborted after disgruntled members disrupted the meeting with table-banging, chanting and loud music.
One of the newly-elected members of the Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union Limited (GPSCCUL), Christopher Thompson, who is also one of the attorneys representing the credit union deemed Monday’s “melee” involving former members of the executive, Karen Vanslutyman-Corbin, Ruth Howard and Saskia Eastman-Onwuzirike as “embarrassing and crass,” as they disrupted the swearing in of the new executive committee. He signalled an intent to return to the court on the matter.
In a letter dated that very day, however, and addressed to Chief Co-operatives Development Officer of the Ministry of Labour, Janaknauth Panchu, members of the Management Committee led by Vanslutyman-Corbin who described herself as Chairperson said that the Special General Meeting on Saturday to elect a new management committee was unlawful.
Responding to that letter in a separate missive to Chairman of the SGM, Patrick Mentore, Panchu, outlined the allegations made by Vanslutyman-Corbin and the other members of the Management Committee.
He has asked Mentore to confirm the allegations and to provide a list of persons who attended the SGM both virtually and in-person as well as a list of the persons who voted at the elections.
Panchu has advised Mentore that unless the information requested is provided, he (Mentore) and other members “must refrain from assuming the duties of the Committee of Management or transact any business whatsoever on behalf of the Credit Union.”
Further, he has asked Mentore to provide any further information which could substantiate that Regulations 17 and 21 of the Co-operatives Societies Act were complied with.
It was at Saturday’s SGM that the election was held, but Vanslutyman-Corbin and the other signatories to the letter—the Members of the Committee of Management—are contending that it was unlawful and by extension the election as well.
Blatant disregard
They contend that that meeting amounted to a blatant disregard for Regulations of the Act as it did not have the quorum stipulated in Regulation 17 and 21 which they said were breached by court-appointed members Patrick Mentore, Trevor Benn and Rajdai Jagarnauth.
Vanslutyman-Corbin said that there was no quorum when the meeting commenced at 10 am.
“There was no quorum established of approximately 6,538 in keeping with our total membership of 25,385 members,” the letter said, before going on to note that nonetheless at 10:50hrs, Mentore announced to the gathering that a quorum had been established.
This announcement the signatories to the letter said, was done without Mentore stating the number of persons in the meeting both in-person and online, emphasising that even up to an hour after the start of the meeting, the members present were still not sufficient to form a quorum.
Vanslutyman-Corbin said that Mentore made the announcement of a quorum having been reached, being fully aware of Regulations 17 which speaks to what constitutes a quorum.
Regulations 17 (1) provides that “where a registered society consists of not more than 40 members, one-half of the number of the members or 10 members, whichever is the less, shall form a quorum for the purposes of the annual or special general meeting, and where a registered society consists of more than 40 members, one-fourth of the total number of the members of such society shall form a quorum for the purposes of the annual or special general meeting.”
Regulation 17 (2) further provides that “if within one hour at the time fixed for any meeting other than a meeting convened by the Commissioner the members present are not sufficient to for a quorum, such meeting shall be considered as dissolved if convened on the demand of members.”
According to the letter writers after contacting the representative of the virtual voting platform, they were informed that the online attendance was 513 members at the designated time to establish a quorum.
This status, they said, remained unchanged even after mid-day, and that the position was further evident when they enquired abut the number of persons participating for the Committee of Management both online and in-person which amounted to approximately 1,907.
“It is known that an SGM does not provide for voting unless a quorum has been established. The absence of the above by virtue of the regulations, the meeting should have been dissolved,” the letter said.
Against this background, Members of the Management Committee are asking Chief Co-operatives Development Officer, Panchu, to exercise his statutory power provided for in the Act to settle what they say is a “dispute.”
Among the irregularities which they said were observed at the SGM were that there was no evidence of ballot boxes or a specified place set aside for the casting of ballots at the regional venues or polling stations.
According to Vanslutyman-Corbin and the other letter writers, members of staff were also observed voting for the members as they visited the regional venue or polling places, while adding that those locations were not equipped with monitors or screens for members to view and participate.
They say, too, that there was no validation of credit union membership required to enter the Zoom meeting room, nothing that “anyone whether member or not could have entered the meeting room.
Another “irregularity” the letter writers said was that the Zoom link to enter and participate could be shared multiple times thus allowing one person to log into the meeting more than once using the same link and even on several devices.
The meeting room they said, had a maximum of 500 participants and that some members who tried to gain access were met with the message, “this meeting has reached a maximum of 500 participants. Please try again later.”
As they ended their letter, Members of the Management Committee said that the motion debarring officers from holding offices was not legal and has no legal standing.
They then concluded, “the first motion to remove the Committee of Management saw approximately 900 members participating in the meeting, both online and in-person. At the end of the election process 1,900 plus members voted.”
This, they said, “is evidence also of a breach of Regulation 21 which clearly states that three quarters of the members present of the quorum established must vote to remove the Committee of Management,” adding, “this is precisely 4904 members/voters are required to remove the Committee of Management.”
In addition to Vanslutyman-Corbin, the other signatories to the letter which was copied to Minister of Labour Joseph Hamilton, were Gillian Pollard, Secretary; Arthur Gibbs, Director; Saskia Eastman-Onwuzirike, Director; Charles Ogle, Director; Michelle David, Director; Jermain Hermanstyne, Director; Ruth Howard, Director and Leslyn Noble, Director.
Background
Following the swearing-in ceremony on Monday, Thompson 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 Mentore who was elected Vice Chairman of the credit union.
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.
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.
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 for a quorum 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.
Thompson had 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 10th this year and that $17m be set aside to stage the Special General Meeting (SGM
