Govt. clamps down on co-ops

Mar 06, 2013 News

– Illegal sale of state lands, mismanagement targeted

The illegal sale of state properties by co-operatives across the country is being targeted by government in a systematic crackdown.
According to Labour Minister, Dr. Nanda Gopaul, the Ministry has heard very disturbing stories in relation to land and housing co-operatives. These include the sale of house lots and state property; failure to conduct regular election of members and failure to account for activities within the cooperatives.
“These illicit activities will have to be put to an end…we are going to halt any act of corruption and indiscipline or those aimed at enriching a few rather than the collective,” he told a three-day workshop which started Monday at the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) Labour College at High Street.
The participants included representatives from the local trade unions and co-operative movements and aimed at providing capacity training towards ensuring the optimal functioning of cooperatives.
“I cannot say that I am happy over the functioning and performance of many co-operatives in Guyana. A lot is left to be desired over the management and operation of many. There are rules, standard rules, most based on the Cooperative Acts and I am very unhappy over the failure of many of the cooperatives in Guyana to observe these acts,” Minister Gopaul said.
Government has been struggling a number of years to revitalize the co-op societies, as they are known. In addition to housing co-ops, there are also sugar-cane and rice farming coops.
Because of poor administration, many have fallen to disrepair or to the hands of a few members who were accused over time of taking over lands and property and running it as if it belonged to them. There were allegations of fraud, also, with state lands being sold illegally.
Many of the members have either died or migrated.
According to the Minister, the ministry has been seeking to address unprofessional conduct and mismanagement in some of the local co-operatives, with the aim of getting them to work more effectively for members.
Accountability is one such issue, he said.
“I intend to do, as I have been doing over the last 12 months, to work hard to ensure that we have an accountable and a viable cooperative movement in Guyana, and that the cooperative movement and organisations in this country get every support to ensure that they continue to be buoyant; that they continue to serve the interest of their members and that they continue to aid the development process.”
The official opined that the workshop holds immense potential for the development of the cooperative movement, and it is the expectation that the members will use the training to “bring the cooperative movement back.”
Also present were Permanent Secretary of the Labour Ministry, Lorene Baird; ILO Specialist, Sustainable Enterprise Development and Job Creation, Kelvin Sergeant, and heads of several trade union movements in Guyana including the Consultative Association of Guyanese Industry (CAGI), Samuel Goolsaran; Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Norris Witter and Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), Carvil Duncan.
According to a government release, the workshop is a collaborative venture between the Labour Ministry and ILO and forms part of the training programmes that the ministry must provide, having signed onto the ILO’s Decent Work Country Programme in April 2012, which seeks to promote decent work as a key component of national development strategies.
According to PS Baird, the participants will spend quality time discussing the role of cooperatives in nation building and the development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
“In Guyana there are hundreds of cooperative societies, however many have been defunct or are not functioning optimally, in this regard this workshop offers participants guidance on the path to sustainability by re-emphasising the importance of cooperatives.”
During their brief address, heads of the Trade Union Movement acknowledged the need for cooperation within and among the movements. They also recognised that there was need to revamp the movement, which because of mismanagement had lost some of its important pillars of nation building that preceded its establishment in the 1940s.

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