PNCR taking steps to correct membership register

Last Updated on Saturday, 8 June 2024, 16:59 by Writer

The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) has taken steps to correct the membership register by Sunday, after party General Secretary Dawn Hastings-Williams had said the document had several inaccuracies and there was a computer problem.

“I know that they have made alternative arrangements to improve on the staff…We extended the working hours,” a party official told Demerara Waves Online News.

The list should have been handed over to the Accreditation Committee, headed by Mr Mortimer Mingo, on Thursday, June 6, 2024 but the General Secretary informed him through Congress Administrator Mr Sherwin Benjamin that the deadline was missed because of a malfunctioned computer and the volume of work. “There are still several records received from groups to be entered in the computerised register and that this entry process was delayed until recently, because of the non-functioning computer in that department,” she said.

With Ms Hastings-Williams stating that the membership register would not be ready until another two or three weeks – the latest being just one day before the three-day Congress starts on June 28, Demerara Waves Online News was told that more staff and computers had been made available to work almost around the clock to complete the work. “There is some issue with the updating of the membership register but that activity of itself will not…delay the congress from being held,” the official said;

June 10 is Nomination Day.

That official said accreditation of delegates might suffer a delay which “can be done within the shortest possible time” after the membership register is produced.

The General Secretary said that many members claimed that they had been unable or would be unable, to meet the short deadlines set for the submission of delegates and other information because of the short notice period for Congress, and others claimed not to have received notice at all.

Ms Hastings-Williams recalled that after the decision was taken to hold Congress in June, she immediately dispatched circulars to regional
personnel and known groups requesting that they notify all members and groups. She said that apparently members, particularly those in the hinterland, expected a longer notice period as they had assumed the Congress would have been held in August.

The administration of Congress Place, the party’s headquarters, was Saturday being blamed for poor preparation for Congress which party leader Aubrey Norton is on record as saying repeatedly would be held on or before August 31, 2024.

In her almost two-page letter, which was copied to the PNCR Leader, PNCR Chairman Shurwayne Holder and Mr Mingo, the PNCR General Secretary detailed that she had received complaints from several groups and party members, some in writing, that the records of the Secretariat did not correspond with their previous submissions, resulting in the membership register not reflecting their true membership. “Some members have been able to substantiate the accuracy of their complaints by producing receipts and copies of their records. Others claim that the receipts for payment of membership by them are not now available. I cannot, therefore, substantiate or dismiss their claims,” she said.