Public Service credit union elections set for March 2

Feb 19, 2024 News

Kaieteur News – The Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union (GPSCCU) is set to host its special General meeting and Elections on Saturday March 2, 2024.

The GPSCCU headquarters on Hadfield Street, Georgetown

The meeting will be held both virtually and in person in the various regions. Members in Region four will be allowed to vote at the Critchlow Labour College, Woolford Avenue. The meeting will be held from 9:00 am t0 1:00pm. Members are asked to be on the lookout for information regarding online voting and Regional polling places.

The GPSCCU is urging the full participation of its members. Last month applications for a Stay of Execution of an Order directing the holding of Special General Meeting of the GPSCCU by Leslyn Noble, Ruth Howard and Karen Vansluytman-Corbin was dismissed by the Full Court.

Justices Nareshwar Harnanan and Damon Younge sitting in the Full Court, refused and dismissed Notices of Application filed by the GPSCCU and Noble, Howard and Vansluytman-Corbin seeking Stays of Execution against the Order granted by Justice Navindra Singh on the 15th day of December, 2023.

Justice Singh had ordered on December 15, 2023 inter alia that the Special General Meeting of the Credit Union be held on the 5th day of February, 2024. The Committee of Management had however, appealed the order and sought a stay of its execution.

The Full Court later rejected the request for a stay and noted that the Appellants had failed to establish any special circumstances and or any irreparable prejudice they would suffer if the stays sought were not granted.

This was the second order of the court in less than two years. The first being September 30th, 2022 the meeting was to be called October 24, 2022 and the latter December 15th, 2023 February 5th, 2024.

Back in September, Justice Singh ruled that the Committee of Management must issue a new notice within 10 days of the date of the Order, scheduling a Special General Meeting (SGM) to be held no later than the 24th October, 2022. This was not done and the notice was issued three days before the meeting and backdated.

Last March, Attorney-at-Law Forde, filed Contempt of Court proceedings against the Committee of Management of the GPSCCU.

The action was filed on behalf of Mehalai McAlmont, and others. They petitioned the court to declare that members of the GPSCCU Committee of Management (CoM) unlawfully failed to comply with the principal orders made by Justice Singh on September 30, 2022.

As such the lawyer had sought several orders including a declaration that the GPSCCU, Noble, Howard, and Vansluytman- Corbin, have unlawfully failed to comply with the principal orders made by Justice Navindra Singh on September 30, 2022.

As a result, Justice Singh stripped three officers of the GPSCCU of their rights, duties and responsibilities within the Credit Union after they failed to show up in a contempt of court matter.

The judge had cited their barefaced disregard for the court, the judge ordered that Chairman of GPSCCU Vanslyutman-Corbin, Secretary Pollard and Board Member, Howard no longer hold their positions or perform duties within the credit union until the hearing and determination of the matter in September.

He had also ordered that former Chairman of the Credit Union, Trevor Benn, Vice Chairman, Patrick Mentore and Treasurer, Rajdai Jaggernauth fill their positions and perform their functions.

Justice Singh made the order after attorneys representing the three respondents, failed to provide a plausible explanation for their absence.

The lawyers explained that their clients were out of the jurisdiction and that they had left the country to attend a conference. However, Justice Singh did not find the excuse good enough