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Labour Ministry looking at ‘land-grabbing’ in Coops

Jan 03, 2013 News

The Ministry of Labour has observed what has been deemed very disturbing features within Cooperatives, whereby members have been engaging in illicit activities as it relates to land transfers.
This was the assertion of Labour Minister, Dr Nanda Gopaul, who revealed during a recent media briefing that “we are monitoring those, especially when it comes to what we consider land-grabbing or illegal selling off of shares in these Coops.”
In this regard, the Minister said that a number of Land Cooperatives have therefore come under scrutiny and efforts are being made to actively move to regularise such actions by using the laws to the fullest, if required. Such interventions are now essential, the Minister said, to ensure that the illegal activities are brought to an end thus prosecution will take place where necessary.
He disclosed that several Coop members have in fact been disenfranchised and “we are hoping to give back the members their lands. There have been instances of big business interests taking over huge portions of land belonging to Cooperatives and we will be actively pursuing those with the view of regularising and correcting the situation,” said Dr Gopaul.
He emphasised that Cooperatives were not meant to be given to “big landlords” but rather they were intended for the “small man” with a view of helping to raise his standard of living, whereby he is gainfully employed.
However, this state of affairs has been linked to the fact that there is a shortage of staffers required to man such activities in the Division. And it is the expectation of Minister Gopaul that fervent efforts will be focused on this dilemma.
“We hope to have regional officers in addition to the few we have in Regions Six, Five, Three and Two, and we hope to strengthen the other regions with rice and cane farming activities.”
According to the Minister, both the Cooperative and Friendly Societies posed a challenge to the Labour Ministry last year as a result of a significant staffing shortage. The situation has however faced the Ministry for a number of years, Gopaul admitted.
He disclosed that apart from the Chief Coop Development Officer, there were only two officers at the commencement of last year. The Ministry was able to bring in two additional officers, but a request has since been made for a further six or seven officers at the Regional level, to cater to inspection and coordination as it relates to cooperative ventures, said the Minister. This is especially required in the counties of Essequibo and Berbice, particularly the upper Corentyne area, he added.
However, the Minister said that there were training programmes last year for the officers on staff who were able to undertake a number of scheduled field visits and there were a number of audits during the course of the year.
The Ministry was also tasked with intervening in a number of disputes within Coops. Minister Gopaul disclosed that disputes are normally sent to arbitration and last year there were a total of 18 such processes. Twenty-seven of the disputes were within Coops while the Friendly Societies accounted for 13, he added.
He disclosed that efforts were also made last year by the Labour Ministry, to effect amendment of the rules of Friendly Societies and Cooperatives, which saw 24 such rules being amended. Intervening measures, the Minister assured, were not done without interactions with stakeholders, as about seven such meetings were held during the past year.

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