NAACIE Executive removes General Secretary over misconduct, abuse of powers

The General Secretary of the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE), Dawchan Nagasar, has been removed from the post by the Union’s Executive Council after he was found unfit to hold the position.
In a statement issued on Sunday, NAACIE said that a specially convened emergency Executive Council Meeting was held at the Union’s Headquarters, High Street, Kingston, on Thursday last during which several allegations of serious misconduct were brought to the forefront against Nagasar. These included the dereliction of duties and blatant disregard for the Council’s instructions.
As such, a No-Confidence Motion was filed to have the General Secretary removed from the post.

“These infractions amounted to gross misconduct and abuse of official powers and members of the Executive Council agreed after informed advice and by way of unanimous votes that Mr Dawchan Nagasar can no longer be considered a fit and proper individual to continue holding the office of General Secretary of NAACIE and consequently, a motion of no confidence was carried for his immediate removal from office,” the missive detailed.
Nagasar also served as General Secretary of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG). It is unclear whether he was also removed from FITUG as well.
As General Secretary of NAACIE, Nagasar had represented the Union during negotiations with the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) during which a five per cent increase in wages and salaries for the year 2020 was secured for employees of the power company. That agreement was signed in May this year. He was also part of similar negotiations with GPL in the past, as well as for sugar workers.

Nevertheless, at Thursday’s meeting, the Executive Council appointed Senior Vice President, Bernard Crawford, to act as General President, followed by Assistant General Secretary, Karren Mapp, to act as General Secretary in accordance with the Rules of NAACIE.
Further, Honorary member of the Union, Bhagmat Hochand, was also appointed to act as Treasurer for the purpose of bringing the Union’s accounts up to date for auditing.
These appointments will expire at the Triennial Delegates’ Conference – the highest decision-making body of NAACIE, slated for May 2022.
Additionally, NAACIE’s Executive Council further approved new signatories to its funds, that is, acting General President, acting General Secretary and acting Treasurer of which was named compulsory signatory.
Efforts by this publication to contact Nagasar for a comment on the issue proved futile.

Audit funds
The Executive Council at Thursday’s meeting decided, in addition, that the new officers should immediately request the Auditor General to conduct an audit of the funds of NAACIE.
Only earlier this year, Government had announced plans to carry out a series of integrity audits on all co-operatives and credit unions to root out any corruption and misuse of funds in a bid to ensure transparency and accountability.
The Labour Ministry had invited Expressions of Interest (EoIs) from auditing firms back in March to conduct the audits into co-operatives, friendly societies and credit unions in all 10 administrative regions.
This audit involves a probe into their operations, procedures and the very viability of these organisations, which run on contributions from the workers they represent. According to the tender, the audits will be validating how financially responsible the management of these societies is.
Additionally, it will be validating the financial integrity of their funded and non-funded programmes. The audits will also be shining a spotlight on non-compliance issues hindering these societies, while coming up with recommendations to strengthen their ability to secure funds in the future.
Lastly, the audits will serve the purpose of compiling a database of viable and active co-operatives and credit unions, as well as determining their assets, ownership and the beneficiaries they serve.
When the PPP Government got into office, the issue of mismanaged credit unions had almost immediately reared its head. In fact, the notice had revealed that over 50 trade unions have outstanding returns.
It was reported at the time that NAACIE, whose constituency caters largely to sugar workers, was also featured on the list, having outstanding returns from 1947 to 1969 and then from 1978 to 2018.