•Unclaimed Funds To Be Deposited In State Treasury
Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly have commenced moves to regulate the administration of Cooperative societies and address the current challenges faced by cooperators and its negative impact within the government and private circle in the State.
This was disclosed during the presentation of the report on a “Bill for a Law to Provide for the Registration of Cooperative Societies in Lagos State and for Connected Matters.”
Presenting the report, the Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Industry and Cooperative, Hon. Bisi Yusuff expressed that the stakeholders at the Public Hearing identified various challenges ranging from non-adherence to the provisions of the existing law by the operators, financial impropriety with impunity, fraud, succession hassles, overbearing leadership and inadequate statutory sanctions for defaulting operators and members.
After thorough deliberation and consultations from different stakeholders, the Committee recommended that a registered society shall not grant a loan to any person who is not a member of the society; this is to safeguard the savings of members of a registered society from being used as the loan which may result in bad debt.
Also, the management committee of a registered society shall constitute from among its members a 7-man Electoral Committee to organize elections of officers for the registered society; The accounts of a registered society shall be audited by an auditor selected from the approved list of auditors given by the Director; all money lying unclaimed shall be deposited in the State Treasury amongst others.
Contributing, Hon. Sanai Agunbiade observed that the Committee should ensure that the 7-man Electoral Committee should not be allowed to vote as the tenets of democracy do not allow people who conduct elections to vote.
Hon. Abiodun Tobun who also contributed said there must be a timeframe for unclaimed money in Cooperative account before they are deposited in the State Treasury.
Responding to their observations, Hon. Yusuff commended his colleagues while assuring that their various amendments would be effected in the final report of the Committee.
Subsequently, the recommendations as amended were adopted as the resolution of the House.
