Maravi

‘Eastern Cooperative Union mismanaged assets disposal’

‘Eastern Cooperative Union mismanaged assets disposal’
Written by Christopher Miti in Chipata
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 7:26:15 PM

THE Task Force on Corruption has revealed that the Eastern Cooperative Union (ECU) management and board members mismanaged the disposal of assets and proceeds from the sale. And the Registrar of Cooperatives has written to the acting Zambia Cooperative Federation (ZCF) limited chairman asking the old ECU board to handover to the new board.

In a letter addressed to ECU chairperson and obtained by The Post, Task Force executive chairman Maxwell Nkole stated that investigations were conducted to ascertain the allegations in the manner the assets were disposed off.

He stated that various people from ECU, ministry of agriculture and buyers of properties were interviewed.

"Findings were that the ECU management and the board members mismanaged the disposal of assets and proceeds from the sale. The delay in reporting on your (ECU) part has prejudiced these investigations in that at the time of investigations most of the documentation was lost. In the absence of the documentation, an attempt was made to obtain such information from former employees of the union, union bankers and the buyers of some properties. The information obtained was not so helpful," Nkole stated.

"It appears difficult to prefer any charges because evidence collected is not sufficient to warrant prosecution. The Director of Public Prosecution was consulted and he advised that if there is any outstanding claim against the buyers, ECU may take civil litigation to recover."

The letter was written on August 2, 2007 but was only received on May 26, 2009.

And in his letter to the acting ZCF chairman dated May 26, 2009, Registrar of Cooperatives Justin Mwansa stated that the new board of directors was duly elected at a special general meeting held on June 28 and had assumed all the functions of the board consistent with section 41(1), (2) and (3) of the Cooperatives Societies Act No 20 of 1998.

"This entails that the new board and leadership of ECU has to take keen interest in both assets and liabilities (new and old of the cooperative union.) It is therefore incumbent upon the new ECU board and management to ensure that management assists, together with the old board members prepare a position paper on ECU which should serve as a basis for handover notes," Mwansa stated.

"Now it appears that the old ECU board members have not been cooperative in this matter for which they can be held liable. It is at this stage that the new ECU board should rise to the occasion and demonstrate some leadership and ensure that the records are set straight."

Labels: EASTERN COOPERATIVE UNION, MAXWELL NKHOLE, ZCF

posted by MrK @ 6:27 PM