Members accuse Fishermen Cooperative Society Board of secrecy

Three members of the Antigua and Barbuda Fishermen Co-operative Society have accused the organisation’s Board of Directors of “operating under a cloud secrecy”.
OBSERVER media has obtained a copy of a letter sent to Morvin Williams, the director of co-operatives, at the Financial Services Regulatory Commission (FSRC) in which the three members are asking the official to intervene and support the removal of the three Board members. 
Claiming that the three board members – the president, treasurer and secretary – are all violating the bylaws of the society, the accusers point to evidence, which indicate that the board members have membership in a competing entity, the Antigua Fisheries Limited.
Documentation from the Ministry of Agriculture dated April 17, 2015 lists Len Mussington and Lyndon Greene, respectively as deputy chairman and ordinary member of the Antigua Fisheries Limited for the period July 2014 to July 2016, which coincides with the same period both respectively held the posts of president and treasurer with the Antigua and Barbuda Fishermen Co-operative Society.
The last election for the Antigua and Barbuda Fishermen Co-operative Society was held on July 20, 2014.
The signatories to the letter also intend to challenge the validity of the two men’s membership because of the apparent conflict of interest especially with both having access to the society’s financial accounts.
According to the accusers, the seeming conflict of interest could ultimately infringe on the society’s bylaws which include as a main objective the desire to “improve the economic welfare of its members by utilising their united funds and efforts…for processing and marketing fish”.
In the letter, the signatories Garry Gore, secretary, Colin Francis, committee member, and Phillip Athanaze, chairman, listed eight other contraventions by the board of directors.
As stated in the October 23 letter sent to Williams, the board has also “continuously obstructed the committee from performing its duties and functions”, adding that there has been no annual general meeting in three years.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)