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Credit Union managers spend $31M on overseas trips as members suffer want for dividends
Kaieteur News – While efforts of the Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union (GPSCCU) to pay dividends to its members have been at a standstill, concerns are being raised over how funds are spent on overseas trips for the current management committee.
Former Chairman of the GPSCCU, Trevor Benn
Former Chairman of the GPSCCU, Trevor Benn told Kaieteur News in an interview, that the issue has members expressing frustration over how the credit union is being managed. According to the former Credit Union Head, some persons on the committee travelled overseas four times for this year alone even as its 15000 plus members wait to paid their overdue dividends.
“…Members are really upset about the amount of money that the committee of management is spending on travel. In this dispensation since May of 2022 to July 2023 the record shows that in excess of $31 million was spent on travel.”
Benn who was recently appointed acting secretary of the GPSCCU by way of a court order, lamented on the fact that while the court case over the management committee was ongoing last week, some of those same persons were in Canada.
In addition to this, Benn noted that another troubling issue facing the members is the length of time it takes for them to access loans from the Credit Union.
“When I got there as Chair in 2018, it took almost a month for a person to access a small loan as low as $20,000 and many of members come for as low as $50,000; as low as $30,000, they have serious needs and they need the money urgently… we moved the process time from a month to one day. The same day you could have got that money,” Benn added.
He continued that the holding of a Special General Meeting ordered by the Court is now a priority and an audit of the institution’s financial records is underway.
“We want to get that out of the way to move on to the elections …we want to ensure that we have a new election that is transparent as much as possible for all of its members. Our intention is to make sure that the work of the credit union is not affected that most of all that the members benefit,” Benn added.
GPSCCU Head Office in Hadfield Street
As such, the former Chairman said that one of the first orders of business once the dust settles over the elections is to have Annual General Meeting after which members will receive their “rightful and hard earned dividends.”
Benn is optimistic that the court case will conclude so that the GPSCCU management can move forward with credit union work.
Just last week, a High Court order was handed down stripping three GPSCCU officers of their rights, duties and responsibilities within the Credit Union after they failed to show up in a contempt of court matter. Their lawyers communicated that the trio were on an overseas trip.
However, Justice Navindra Singh interpreted their absence as disrespect for the Court proceedings and ordered that they no longer hold their positions or perform duties within the credit union, until the hearing and determination of the matter in September.
He also ordered instead that former Chairman of the Credit Union, Trevor Benn, Vice Chairman, Patrick Mentore and Treasurer, Rajdai Jaggernauth fill their positions and perform their functions.
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