Silence will break if the gossip
goes on within the corridors of the Gambia Teachers Union Credit Cooperative
Credit Union (GTUCCU). Ebrima Bah reports that no stress can shadow the idea of
elevating the financial status of the teachers in the country but the
managerial system of their shared institution can be questionable.
A
concerned member of the Teachers’ Credit Union argued that the management of
the GTUCCU and its board members have powers to make earnings from resources belonging to the teaching fraternity in the country.
This observer pointed out that many
former teachers sometimes called “Run Away Teachers” (RATs) now sit in
Air-conditioned (AC) offices holding lucrative position just to formulate
policies in their own interest.
“The top officials among them
have seemingly acquired diplomatic traveling passports and are navigating the
world in the name of teachers in this country. Yet there is no change for the
better”, the teacher said.
Yes! The GTU credit union is on
“crisis”. If you look at the credit union today “we have a magnificent building
but in terms of operations we are on the sponge because our reserve is the
lowest”, Edrisa K. Bojang, the GTUCCU Board Chairperson told Education-In-Depth
column.
But crisis was not foreseen by
the founding fathers of the credit union fifteen years ago. Veteran
educationists agreed to establish the union to “provide fair, honest proactive
leadership and the requisite skills and knowledge to steer the credit union in
order to provide teachers the ideal sound and safe environment to invest and
depend on for micro finance products.”
Henceforth the credit union was
expected to victoriously strive for decent living and working conditions for
members by creating easy access to affordable, productive financial services.
Running the affairs of this noble
initiative today is as mixing oil and water. “There is never a unanimous
agreement among them at meetings”, observed a journalist covering GTUCCU
functions. The Annual General Meetings (AGMs) are just for formality but very
few of the concerns raised by the ordinary members at these meetings are
captured and adopted. As a result many teachers especially those in the provinces
far away from Banjul would not waste their time and resources to attend the GTUCCU
annual general meetings.
Late attainment of the required
percentage of members present to make up the quorum is noticeable in several
AGMs in the past.
The board chairman of the Gambia
Teachers Union Cooperative Credit Union this year admitted that one of the
“original sins” they were dealing with for long is “giving the task of
determining interest and operational charges to the AGM” which he said is “against
convention and common sense.”
According to him the GTUCCU
realised that “service charges should depend on market forces in the
environment we operate and the Board should determine what is reasonable.”
Members argued that it is
becoming clearer that more and more reforms of their credit union are confined
within the cooperative’s leadership class and it’s neighbourhood but not to the
ordinary member in the classroom and in village schools.
The GTUCCU is battling with this
challenge. “Member education must be reactivated. People need to know what is a
Credit Union and not comparing it with a Micro-finance Organisation”, stated
the Board Chairperson.
The importance of the GTUCCU and
the services it is forcing its members to enjoy “at low cost” is not commendable
by majority of its disgruntle members partly due to lack of awareness of the
country’s educators.
Take a look at the recent
“Shareholding Reform”. When it was introduced in the year 2009, each member was
required to have a share of three hundreds dalais (D300). Last year the credit
union came up with a resolution which states that all teachers must have two
shares of three hundreds (D300) each and every year.
The cost of operation for the
credit union has also increased from D14.17 to D50 monthly for all teachers. To
that effect, the management of the GTUCCU explained that the previous amount
was clearly unsustainable due to rising cost of maintaining a model credit
union.
Education-In-depth
understands that teachers in different schools and regions continue to
helplessly cry for the “unjust” deduction they persistently realised on their
monthly salary payslips as “unknown cost” for services of the GTUCCU.
Growing complains from teachers
in the service is becoming a threat to the incoming youngsters. A newly
qualified teacher in Higher Teacher Certificate (HTC) category rejected a
GTUCCU membership forms distributed at his school of posting. Like many other
potential members of the credit union, this teacher fears of getting cheated by
the credit union each day and month of every year. He automatically chooses to
join the bank line and not credit union for monetary transactions.
Mr. Bojang explained that members
of the credit union must bear the responsibility of owning their organisation
which involves cost to run its operations. “If you take the cost of operation
on your own and do it then you will have a better return tomorrow and the
organisation will be able to build up a good reserve”, he said.
Time has come for all teachers
across the country to inevitably subscribe to the GTUCCU.
Baboucarr O. Joof, General Manager
of the Gambia Teachers’ Cooperative Credit Union (GTUCCU) said the credit union
was compelled to request the salary payment function from Government after
tumbling on a policy that targeted removing the current system which takes “pay
masters” round schools to pay teachers.
He noted that operations in all
regions are costly but essential to reduce their dependence on Banks,
absenteeism, and other collateral costs associated with receiving salaries
there. “Management expects every Regional (Education) Directorate to operate
one branch in 2012 with a full complement of staff able to render all services
accessible in Kanifing”, the GTUCCU headquarters.
Within fifteen years of
existence, the Gambia Teachers Union Cooperative Credit Union has build homes
for its members under its loan scheme. The credit union has among others “saved
people from their hospital bills, and enable them to be business entrepreneurs
as well as upgrade them up to university level in their academic careers
through their GTU credit union membership”, the GTUCCU Board Chairperson said.
On the reason for cutting down
teachers’ salaries, Haddy S. Njie the GTUCCU Treasurer explained that there is
a double increased in volume of transactions regarding loans to the credit
union’s members. “Our loan book grew by D17, 259, 377 to D55, 349, 443
representing 45.3 percent”, she said.
In the pipeline now are the
Consumer Cooperative Unit and the Health Care and Insurance Scheme, which their
General Manager said is ready now for takeoff.
Whether openly or blindly,
rightly or wrongly, members’ shares for the GTU credit union has significantly increased
from D4, 320, 700 to D9, 189, 600.
This increase according to the
GTUCCU Treasurer was due to the resolution passed in 2011 that annualised
membership shares.
As a result, operational income
for the credit union has increased from D8, 058, 104 to D9, 728, 545 with an
increased in annual surplus from D26, 180 to D188, 918.
She assured teachers that the GTU
credit union is determined to remain steadfast and prudent in managing their
funds.
