SOME OF THE REASONS FOR DE-CERTIFICATION, AS LISTED BY THE AUDITOR UNDER THE CLOCERT CLOSING REPORT WHICH NOTED:

■ Non-compliance

■ Certain key persons were not reachable for unjustified reasons or the organisation was not active on bridging the information gaps.

■ Legalega sector has been suspended from 26th September 2018. A formal inquiry had not been conducted up to the time of the audit

■ Members of the board have invaded the privacy of a staff member and delegate to the general assembly by logging into their email accounts and reading emails received and sent.

■ The auditor noted that remuneration of three members of the staff had been reduced and one has received an increase. While one staff member is longer in service, two of the other staff members have had their salaries restored to the original level. Remuneration of the third staff member has not been restored to the level prior to reduction.

■ A member of the staff and a delegate to the general assembly has been suspended for forwarding an allegation to FLO-Cert

■ Vehicles purchased under Investments have not been listed, along with community projects under the Development Plans submitted to Fairtrade as required,

■ Allowances received by each member of the board and delegates are approximately 50 per cent of the average salary of an employee of the association. Allowance paid to the chairman was almost equal to the salary received by a full time member of the staff.

■ The chairman has claimed and received per diem payments for attending two international conferences sponsored meetings and conferences. To the best of the knowledge of the auditor above mentioned organisations covered all expenses.

■ The association is required to provide housing for three harvester operators. The auditor’s report said two of these operators were staying in the house of the chairman while the other was housed in the vice chairman’s house and both executives received $500 rent per month.

■ The chairman had exclusive use for the association’s vehicle and maintenance cost amounted to over $6000. A new vehicle was purchased and this was being used extensively by the Chairman

■ Total of allowances paid to the board and delegates, rents paid to the members of the board and vehicle costs of the board amount $121,674.58 or 7.1 percent of the premium received in 2018.

■ A member of the board was provided a loan of $5000 on the instructions of the president. There is no provision in the Fairtrade Development Plan or rules governing grant of loans

■ Elections were forced with allegations of corruption and reports to Fairtrade on these elections were falsified