The Social Protection Ministry’s Labour Department is working to resuscitate cooperatives across Guyana. This announcement was made by Minister within the Social Protection Ministry with responsibility for Labour, Keith Scott, who said there are plans to have youths involved in the process.
On Monday, Scott met with members from the cooperative societies in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) at the Toevlugt/Patentia Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC). The meeting was held at Good Intent Village.
Scott said the Ministry planned to visit all the cooperative societies to assist them in restructuring their systems and those that are able to manage themselves properly would be assisted further. He said for those that are corrupted, interim management councils would be set up to ensure systems fall in line.
According to Scott, the Ministry plans to bring on stream thrift societies and a children credit union.
The Minister plans to have another meeting with members of the cooperative societies of Region Three since one meeting was not enough to cover all the issues of the Region.
Earlier in the year, Scott had said his Ministry was working on crafting a policy to boost the cooperative society movement.
There are currently over 1000 functioning cooperatives in Guyana, all of which are currently being audited. “What we need to have in place is total accountability: auditing accounts that must be audited and a cooperation existing between the league and each cooperative because we need to understand that we have obligations to the league, we need to understand that we have obligations to the members,” Minister Scott said.
