Credit unions in Dominica to protest law changes

by Paul Charles

Thursday, December 25, 2003

ROSEAU, Dominica: Credit Unions in Dominica said they would close their doors on Monday to protest against government's plan to amend the Dominica Cooperatives Law that would transfer their supervision to the Ministry of Finance supervision. 

At a news conference on Wednesday, officials of the umbrella body, the Dominica Cooperatives Societies League (DCSL), disclosed that they were dissatisfied with the level of discussion held before the changes to the law takes place in parliament on Monday.

General Manager of the DCSL, Ackroyd Birmingham, said: ''A number of things were discussed and the most appropriate course of action we have is to close all credit unions on Monday in solidarity.'' 

Birmingham added that some members of the credit unions would attend parliament to let the MPs know how bad they feel about being shifted from the supervision of Ministry of Community Development.

''We want to respect public order in the country... so we will go out there, we will talk to parliamentarians as they're coming in and tell them what's taking place,'' he said. 

The credit unionists believe the government may have ulterior motives in wanting to have a cooperative venture governed by the Banking Act that places it in direct competition with commercials banks.

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