Chief Cooperative Development Officer highlights poor management of Linden Utility Cooperative Ltd

Guyana: The Cooperative Society Act, Chapter 88:01, empowers the Chief Cooperative Development Officer (CCDO) to take over any Cooperative or Friendly Societies or Credit Union that, in the opinion of the CCDO, is mismanaged or not transparent.

As such, the CCDO, in her opinion and based on complaints made to the Cooperative Department, felt that the Linden Utility Cooperative Society Limited was mismanaged by the committee of management, against this backdropped, and under regulation 56(2) of the Cooperative Societies Act. The Chief Cooperative Development Officer Acting appointed an Interim Management Committee comprised of seven persons with effect from April 2022 to manage the society, as mentioned earlier.

The following persons are Renee Mac Donald, Chairwoman, Winston Caesar, Hilton Lyle, Wanda Richmond, Courtney Handy, Leon Greaves and Latoya Walks.

Nonetheless, the CCDO (ag), along with the Chairman of the IMC National Union, engaged the committee of management of the Linden Utility Company on Tuesday, April 5, 2022.

However, given further insight into how poorly managed was society, some of the issues that came to light were;
1. No Annual General Meeting (AGM) has been held since 2014, despite the law requiring AGM to be held annually.
2. Conflict of interest- A sitting committee of members also acted as the Office Manager of the LUSC.
3. The Membership Register was not updated since 2014, meaning there were no new members approved by the management committee, among others.

The members of the dissolved committee, which has been managed since 2014, are as follows, Charles Sampson, Chairman, Franklyn Carew, Claude Williams, Treasurer, Courtney Handy, Esme Yangapatt, Secretary, Stanley Collins, Alfred Julien, Hugh Stephenson and Carlton Mc Curdy.

Please note that the above-mentioned persons are no longer empowered to transact/ conduct any business or transaction on behalf of the Linden Utility Service Cooperative Limited, Registration Number, 763.