WESTMEATH, Ireland–With its most recent giveaway of a new car, Mullingar Credit Union here is reporting it has given away 215 cars over the past 18 years.
Known as “car draws” in Ireland, they are a unique and popular offering by credit unions in this country. In most cases, members pay an annual fee of €25 to have their names entered into the pool for each draw.
“The draw continues to be very successful and extremely popular with members,” Tom Allen, manager of Mullingar Credit Union, told the Westmeath Examiner.
At Mullingar CU, the draw sees other prizes given out as well, and the overall total of prizes distributed, including the cars, amounts to 1,715.
“In our April 2019 draw we had 10,128 members taking part,” Allen told the publication. The draws are held publicly in the main office in Mullingar or at the annual general meeting.
“The winning numbers are drawn by random members of Mullingar Credit Union present at the time of the draw and each draw is supervised by a member of the board of directors, a member of the Board Oversight Committee and a member of the Car Draw Committee,” Allen told the Westmeath Examiner.
In a further level of caution, Mullingar Credit Union’s draw procedures, processes and administration are reviewed annually by the Mullingar Credit Union’s Internal Auditors – RBK, and no issues have been highlighted, according to the publication.
All the disclosure by the credit union comes as reports have previously identified insiders at some CUs winning the prizes, including CEOs, as CUToday.info earlier reported here and here.