USCSL is one of Guyana’s oldest and most successful cooperative

Jul 09, 2018 News

---

 

By Enid Joaquin

Guyana is said to be the only cooperative republic in the world, and Linden now holds the distinction of being the town that is home to one of the oldest cooperatives in the country.
Located on Burnham Drive, Wismar, Linden, the Linden Utility Services Cooperative Society Limited (LUSCSL) is not only one of the oldest, but reportedly the most successful Cooperative in Guyana. It is also the only one operating as a utility service.
In celebration of Co-op Week, LUSCSL was chosen for the hosting of a special outreach by the Ministry of Social Protection on Thursday last.
This was done through the Department of Cooperatives in collaboration with the Guyana Cooperative Credit Union Limited and the Guyana Cooperative Credit Union League. National Cooperative Week 2018 was observed under the theme “Co-operatives: Sustainable Production and Consumption of Goods and Services.”
Among those in attendance at the outreach were members of the Co-op and staff of LUSCSL, Mayor of Linden Waneka Arrindel, Compliance Officer of the Department of Cooperatives in the Ministry of Social Protection, Ann Abigail Arthur, Suresh Jaigobin, Senior Officer, Cooperatives Department of the Ministry of Social Protection and Dana Nestor, Manager of the Guyana Cooperative Credit Union League.

SUSTAINABILITY

LUSCSL has without a doubt proven that it possesses the capacity for sustainability throughout the years, serving its membership for fifty plus years and counting.

The Cooperative was established as the Wismar/Christianburg Electricity Supply Cooperative Society, and registered in 1960.
As the former name implies the “Society” as it was called, supplied electricity to its members, all of whom resided on the Wismar shore.
It was established with twenty five members after some bauxite workers, who resided at Wismar, approached the Demerara Bauxite Company (DEMBA) for electricity to be supplied to residents of the Wismar Housing Scheme.
This soon became a reality with DEMBA selling some of the electricity it produced to the Co-op, which in turn sold power to its members on the West Bank (Wismar).
LUSCSL is managed by a board of nine members, with Charles Sampson heading the Committee as Chairman.
Sampson took over the reins from former Chairman Valerie Adams Patterson (Yearwood) who became the first woman to head the management committee in August 2007.
That year was historic in more ways than one for the Coop, as it was also handed back to the membership, after being headed by then Chief Co-ops Development Officer Clive Nurse, and managed by an interim committee for a period.

DIVERSIFICATION
The Cooperative soon saw the need to diversify to better serve its customers.
This necessitated a name change, hence its present name Linden Utility Services Cooperative Society Limited.
The co-op established its first subsidiary; a logging concession.
Millions of dollars worth of machinery was acquired for the new venture, with its latest acquisition of a Wood Mizer portable sawmill a few years ago.
An electrical store and document centre was later established on the COOPs fiftieth anniversary, on the ground floor of its Burnham Drive Offices. .

CHALLENGES
Manager Lyndon Younge in alluding to some challenges, spoke of some losses that accrued to the utility through the purchase of unsuitable meters.
“I would have to take you back to the purchase of a batch of meters sometime in 1999, which has a whole host of issues and it was basically not the right meters for the right arrangement in Linden”.
Younge said that the three thousand meters were “straight” 220 meters that are only used in communities such as those in the East Bank and East Coast of Demerara. Linden is 110-220.”
As a consequence, a loss reduction arm was installed to evaluate the impact of the discrepancy. It was subsequently found out that as a consequence of placing the 220 meters on 110 services, the meters were “spinning slow” and the society was losing on about fifteen hundred homes.
The Manager said that this has to be rectified.
He was however quick to point out some 56M would be needed to replace the equipment, as the price of a meter has risen from $6000 to $$20,000.
He acknowledged, that servicing the meters “makes no sense as they would not have the efficiency.”
He further posited that those that could be serviced would be serviced, but that the more electronic type meters are unserviceable.

DUTY FREE
The Manager in answer to a question about the CO-OP getting duty free concessions said that there were some setbacks.
“In this country if you want certain things to happen your audits have to be up, especially with the FIU.”
Younge added, that with the audits presently being close to where they should be, it would soon be possible for such concessions to be granted. According to Younge, the utility currently employs sixty persons, and despite some challenges is looking to greatly increase that number.
Mayor of Linden Wanneka Arrindel commended the team for bringing the COOP Week outreach to LUSCSL, and exhorted the utility to do more sensitization programmes on television and radio.
In alluding to the theme, the Mayor said that with the Government’s initiative of sustainable and resilient towns, it is important for us to look at how “we sustain this product for the people of Linden.”
Reflecting on the fact that the COOP is managed by Wismar residents the Mayor posited,
“I do believe that we need to let the people of Wismar understand that and understand the importance of how we utilise the electricity that is given to us. “
Arrindel added that with the cost of electricity so low many persons burn their lights all day and night, without understanding the importance of conserving.
“If we are to leave a Carbon footprint for the next generation, we have to start conserving…..
I want to say congratulations, because over the years we have seen how LUSCSL has grown because of great management. Congratulations to the board and Management.”
Secretary of LUSCSL George Joaquin, gave a brief history of the Cooperative, citing its growth from starting out with just twenty five members to its present membership of over five thousand

---

---