Updated: Teachers Union fails to file legally required financial records- Commerce Registrar, Auditor General

Last Updated on Friday, 9 February 2024, 21:56 by Denis Chabrol

Amid claims and counter-claims about whether the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) has been properly accounting for membership dues, the Registrar of Commerce and the Auditor General’s Office on Friday both  said that that workers’ organisation has not filed annual returns several years.

“An examination of the relevant records at the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority discloses that Annual Returns required by Section 35 of the Trade Unions Act, Cap. 98:03 to be filed annually by registered trade unions was last filed by the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) for the year ending 31st of December, 2004, on the 31st of March, 2005,” the Registrar of Commerce said in a brief statement.

“Auditor General wishes to confirm that the last Financial Statement submitted by the Guyana Teachers Union to the Audit Office of Guyana for audit was in respect to 1989 and no subsequent Financial Statement has since been submitted,” said Auditor General Deodat Sharma in a statement.

The statements by the Registrar of Commerce and the Auditor General were issued after GTU Vice President Collis Nicholson rejected Vice President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo’s position that that union had not filed annual returns since 2004 and no financial statement had been filed with the Registrar of Trade Unions since the 1980s in keeping with the Trade Union Act.

Mr Nicholson earlier Friday labelled Mr Jagdeo’s claim as “totally false” and explained that the audited statements are submitted at the GTU’s conference every three years.

A GTU source later told Demerara Waves Online News that not all executive members were aware of those statutory requirements.

While picketing outside the Ministry of Labour, a number of teachers was not concerned with Mr Jagdeo’s views about a lack of accountability by the GTU. “The union has a financial report and they will be checking and they know that so I am not bothered by that,” a teacher said.

The strike entered its fifth day on Friday with no end in sight and many Guyanese, including parents and their children, awaiting the next move by government and the GTU.

The teachers are demanding collective bargaining for an increase in salaries and allowances. But government said on Thursday that salary increases are hinged on affordability over the long-term combined with other priorities. The opposition has recommended that GY$20 billion in expenses be diverted to paying teachers and salaries more.