Latest update July 26th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 03, 2024 News
Kaieteur News – Long-standing member of the Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union (GPSCCU) Trevor Benn on Saturday received the most votes at the Credit Union’s election of a new Committee of Management.
Saturday’s election followed a lengthy High Court fight between two sects of the credit union.
Polls opened at 13:15h and closed at 17:30h. At approximately 19:34h, Returning Officer, Professor Leyland Lucas started the declaration at approximately 20:00h.
The results delivered by Professor Lucas are as follows: Trevor L. Benn- 1816 votes, Paul Clarke 291, Simone Allen 157, Eslyn Harris 1490, Patrick Mentore 1636, Mehalai Mc Almont 1504, Christopher Thompson 1504, John Anderson 1495, Judah Louisy 1408, Vanessa Kissoon 1,608, Kirk Fraser 1403, Candace Enmore 1255, Beverly De John 1133, Joel Hinds 960, Marlon Cole 851, Rajdai Jagarnauth 1251, Dwight Dodson 187, Dawn Gardener 125, Patrick M. Yarde 97, Indira Thakurdin 90, Loren Park 173 and Selwyn Griffith 253.
After emerging victorious, Benn told reporters that Saturday’s victory is for the members of the Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union.
“As you are aware, the need for this Special General Meeting was made possible by ordinary members who decided that they wanted to have better governance at the credit union, and they sought to have the management committee respond to them on issues which they felt were not in keeping with good governance at the time.
They further went on to the court because the management committee did both respond to them, and so here we are two years hence for the holding of the Special General Meeting,” he said.
Further, Benn said “I think it is a very good thing that members of the Credit Union are allowed to question the leadership of the organization and to take steps necessary to bring them to account and this is what I believed happened here over the past two years.”
He reminded reporters that the road to Saturday’s elections were fought for in the country’s courts. “And in each period, the court ruled in favour of the members and I am sure they are rejoicing today that the final order of the court had been adhered to and we are at this stage here today.”
Earlier Saturday, a motion was carried by the Credit Union to elect a new Committee of Management at its Special General Meeting held at the Critchlow Labour College on Saturday.
This motion was the third of three tabled in keeping with the orders handed down by Justice Navindra Singh in the matter of Mehalai McAlmont and others vs. Guyana Public Service Co-operative Credit Union in December.
The process was facilitated by ROSE I.T, a Trinidadian Firm, and members consisting of those in person as well as those who participated in online voting. Persons were assisted with a video on how to properly register and log in, with their unique voter code, when the portal was open.
Those who were not the owners of cellular phones were able to use tablets provided by the company to cast their votes. The nominee list consisted of 22 persons and voters were allowed to vote for 12 persons of their choice to make up the committee.
For the motion to be carried, it needed “a simple majority of those present.”
As a result, a total of 879 members participated. Of that number, 826 persons voted yes which represented 94%, seven persons voted no which represents a meager 1%, another 1% or four abstained and 42 persons or 4% chose not to participate.
The other two motions were to remove the current members of the Committee of Management which consists of Karen Vansluytman-Corbin (Chairman), Gillian Pollard (Secretary), Ruth Howard (Committee Member), Saskia Eastman-Onwuzirike (Committee Member), Charles Ogle (Committee Member), Jermain Hermanstyne (Committee Member), Leslyn Noble (Committee Member), Michelle David (Committee Member), and Arthur Gibbs (Committee Member with immediate effect.
The first motion in this regard received a 765 membership votes, which meant 88% said yes, 2% abstained, 3% voted no and 7% did not participate.
As this motion was carried, it was met with thunderous applause and loud cheers from the general members.
The other motion that was tabled was, “the nine officers of the Guyana Public Service Co-operative Credit Union Ltd., be prohibited at this Special General Meeting from standing for election to any office on the Committee of Management of the Guyana Public Service Co-operative Credit Union Ltd.
This motion was met with a 824 strong votes, 85% of the membership voted yes, 4% voted no, and 4% abstained, 7% opted to take a vote of no participation.
During the meeting, the now former Chairman Karen Vansluytman-Corbin objected to the voting process on the grounds that a quorum was not established.
Vansluytman-Corbin claimed that everything done after 11:00 hrs was illegal. “One hour after the time fixed, which is 10 o’clock for any meeting other than a meeting convened by the commissioner, (if) the members present are not sufficient to form a quorum such meeting shall be considered as dissolved,” she said.
Vansluytman-Corbin explained to the media that, “you cannot just go up there and say a quorum has been established, and you do not say what is the quorum that has been established. At 11:00hrs the meeting for lack of quorum ought to be dissolved in keeping with this law. Anything that happens after now is illegal.”
She said that the decision made after the 11:00hrs mark will be challenged because of illegalities. Since there were approximately 300 persons in the room, and reports from the outlying locations were around 10 and 15. “That will not give them a quorum. Even if they have the online numbers, ROSE I.T said they can only facilitate a maximum on the platform of 3000 people.”
Vansluytman-Corbin stressed that this was not her estimation of the quorum, but the law says “the quorum is one-fourth of the total membership. The total membership is 25,385.”
However, Returning Officer Dr. Leyland Lucas told Vansluytman –Corbin that, “According to the numbers we have, a quorum has been established.”
Lucas informed her that everything that they were about to do is in keeping with the law as the combined numbers he had received matched the requirements for a quorum to be formed, and as such the morning’s proceedings would go ahead.
Voting to establish the new Committee of Management commenced at 13:15hrs and it was done strictly online.
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 of 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 Vansluytman-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.
BE THANKFUL AND GRATEFUL TO THE FOREIGN EXPLOITERS
Jul 26, 2024
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