ST. JOSEPH, Trinidad & Tobago–Three former executives and one long-time employee of the St. Joseph-based Eastern Credit Union Co-Operative Society (ECU) have sent a letter to this country’s Commissioner for Co-operatives mexpressing “grave concern about the operations of the ECU” and are calling for an investigation into the credit union and its board.
Finance Minister Colm Imbert, Minister of Youth Development and National Service Foster Cummings and Central Bank Governor Dr Alvin Hilaire were copied in the letter, according to TrinidadExpress.com.
The letter was signed by former ECU president Lennox Marcelle, employee Angela Passee and former chief executives Christopher Lewis and Steve Albino, the publication reported.
“The writers’ assessment of what is taking place at Eastern Credit Union can be summarized within three issues of grave concerns. The first being a breakdown of governance, the second issue is one dealing with a runaway board and thirdly, incompetence and ineptness,” the group alleged, according to TrinidadExpress.com.
Potential Failure Alleged
The authors allege ECU is on a path to becoming “another Hindu Credit Union,” a reference to the failure of that CU in 2008.
“In the letter to the Commissioner for Co-operatives, the group noted ECU has grown both in its financial reputation and membership size, arising primarily from the credit union’s ability to financially assist the average citizen member with sound professional and ethical leadership,” the report states. “This has resulted in an institution that commands an asset base in excess of $2 billion and membership exceeding 200,000.”
The group claimed that ECU’s reputation was now being “eroded at an alarming rate,” “primarily due to a level of leadership that has no respect for strong governance principles, propriety in the dealings of the business of the credit union, and a disturbing lack of appreciation of what co-operatism is all about,” TrinidadExpress.com reported. “The group said last year the ECU board took a decision to discontinue the sale of foreign currency under a Bureau de Change. They claimed this decision came when the Central Bank sought “legitimate answers” from ECU regarding the Central Bank’s fit and proper guidelines, which is a stipulation of the Bureau de Change arrangement.”
‘It Appears Strange’
Of that situation, the letter states, “In an environment in which it should be normal for a financial institution to willingly submit itself to legitimate scrutiny, it appears strange that a reasonable business organization would sacrifice a line of business apparently because of an unwillingness to respond to questions on the issue of fit and proper,” they wrote.
In addition, the group claimed that another “curious decision” taken by the board in response to “scrutiny of ECU’s finances”, was when the board “withdrew” the credit union from any further relationship with credit rating agency CariCRIS, after CariCRIS downgraded the ECU’s foreign and local current rating on June 22.
Additional Allegations
They raised several other questions and concerns, which they said must be addressed, according to TrinidadExpress.com, including:
- Share withdrawals and resignations from members approaching $10 million per month.
- Termination of the employment of staff without due process being followed, most of which have led to a number of court matters.
- First-class travel by directors and spouses to the World Conference of Credit Unions in Scotland in 2022.
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