One’s presence is of utmost importance

Jul 05, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor,
We note with great concern recent articles appearing in some sections of the media purporting to state the Berbice Cricket Board’s drastic position as it relates to the long overdue holding of the Annual General Meeting of the Guyana Cricket Board.
This highhanded position is riddled with insolence and irrelevant matters and it seems that the Berbice Board is willing to sabotage and hold hostage the operations of the GCB for political reasons and is a classic case of the tail trying to wag the dog.
It is public knowledge that the financial accounts of the GCB for the last fiscal year has undergone tremendous scrutiny by various external entities and has been given a relatively clean bill of health.
• Firstly, these financial accounts were audited by the auditor of the GCB, Barcellos Narine & Co, which Firm was duly appointed by the Registrar of the Friendly Societies when the GCB fell under the auspices of that Body.
• The Friendly Society itself further employed the services of accountant, Mr. Vibert Patrick, who at a meeting with the Executives of the GCB, declared that he was not a politician and found absolutely nothing wrong with the GCB accounts.
• The Society also employed Cooperatives’ specialist, Mr. Rupert Foster, to investigate the entire operations of the GCB inclusive of its finances. This gentleman met with the Executives individually and then collectively with a group led by Claude Raphael that included non-executives of the GCB. We are all aware that this report found no evidence of wrongdoing but was never released, by the Registrar, because of politics. The Society has failed to release its report following this investigation but claimed that it was awaiting the resignation of the GCB’s President.
• In addition, the Sports Minister had appointed Design & Construction Services Limited, earlier this year, to conduct a forensic audit of the 2 hostels built by the GCB in Essequibo and LBI which report was made available to the general public.
GCB’s AGM was set by its Executive Committee and was scheduled to be held since the end of January 2011 and it is now more than five months overdue.
Several of the GCB’s Executives have deliberately refused to attend Executive Committee meetings for the entire 2011 hoping to sabotage the operations of the Board for their own political agenda, but preferred to use the media to ventilate their ignorance rather than serving in the positions for which they were elected.
The Honourable Chief Justice, Ian Chang, has quite correctly quashed the registration of both the GCB and the DCB in separate rulings and this group of masqueraders now seem to have again resorted to maligning their fellow officers by way of the media after a lull when they had engaged the courts in pursuit of their political agenda.
As far as I am aware, the Demerara Cricket Board matter is still engaging the attention of the courts and, hopefully, would be resolved soon. The GCB should not and cannot mediate in a matter that is engaging the attention of the courts.
The constitution of the GCB is very explicit regarding the quorum for an AGM and we at the Essequibo Cricket Board are committed to attend and air our concerns and grievances at the AGM of the GCB on July 10th 2011 as we feel that this is the appropriate forum for such issues and we urge our sister (Berbice) Board to do the same thing.
One would have thought that with all the accusations of impropriety being leveled at some of the Officers of the GCB that everyone would have been anxious to have an AGM where a new Executive could be installed but, instead, we are witnessing a plethora of delaying tactics.
It all began with the Registrar of the Friendly Society ordering the AGM to be aborted in January, then the Minster conducting a quite lengthy investigation, then deliberately withholding the final report, then calling for the resignation of the President.
Now the tactics have shifted, after the registration at the Friendly Society has been squashed, with the Berbice Board refusing to attend the AGM under the pretext that the Demerara Board would not be present. History has a strange way of exposing some of us with the positions that we take.
In its ill-advised letter, the Berbice Board is demanding an Executive Committee Meeting and an Ordinary General Meeting, but an Annual General Meeting is the highest forum for the Board. What are they afraid of? If they have concerns, they should attend the AGM and ensure that they are heard.
Aotto Christiani
Fizul Bacchus

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