Recently-elected Vice Chairman of the public service credit union, Patrick Mentore said that he is in the process of providing the list of persons who attended the Special General Meeting (SGM) on Saturday both virtually and in person as well as a list of those who voted.
Amid allegations by outgoing Chairperson of the Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union Limited (GPSCCUL) Karen Vansluytman-Corbin, that the special general meeting to elect a new management committee was unlawful, Mentore said that he responded to a letter by the Chief Co-operatives Development Officer (CCDO) of the Ministry of Labour, Janaknauth Panchu on the matter.
Panchu in a letter to Mentore noted 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(ing) any business whatsoever on behalf of the Credit Union.”
The CCDO asked Mentore to provide any further information which could substantiate that Regulations 17 and 21 of the Co-operatives Societies Act were complied with.
Mentore related he has agreed to the request of Panchu, by sending him a letter of acknowledgement.
Mentore however deemed it strange that the CCDO did not impose any restrictions on the outgoing committee of management led by Vanslutyman- Corbin.
He informed this newspaper that a Zoom meeting was held on Thursday night between himself and the newly-elected committee management as it relates to the latest development.
Mentore made it clear that he and Secretary Eslyn Harris were the ones authorized to hold or call for an SGM and not Chief Executive Officer of the Union Adeola Griffith.
The letter regarding the acknowledgement of the CCDO’s request was also copied to the CEO of GPSSCUL, Mentore noted.
It was at Saturday’s SGM that the election was held, that Vanslutyman-Corbin and the other signatories to the letter—the Members of the Committee of Management contended that it was unlawful and by extension the election as well.
Vanslutyman-Corbin and her team contended that that meeting amounted to a blatant disregard for Regulations of the Act as it did not have the quorum stipulated in Regulations 17 and 21 which they said were breached by court-appointed members Patrick Mentore, Trevor Benn and Rajdai Jagarnauth.
She 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 announced 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 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 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 form a quorum, such meeting shall be considered as dissolved if convened on the demand of members.”
“It is known that an SGM does not provide for voting unless a quorum has been established. The absence of the above by 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, noting that “anyone whether a 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.”
