MEMBERSHIP FEE CONFUSION MARS MEETING
Confusion over a membership fee within the Fiji Taxi Association (FTA) marked the group’s 69th annual general meeting yesterday. That confusion saw members of the association on Saturday walking out of the meeting at the Nadroga Sangam Primary School in Sigatoka, frustrated with its administration leaders.
An election for committee members was also cancelled by the association president, Raben Singh, on Saturday after the committee learned that many of its members had not paid their membership fee.
Mr Singh said only members who had paid their fee could take part in the election, but this did not go well for many of the members because they were not aware about paying a membership fee.
This led to members from the Namaka Taxi Association exchanging strong words with the FTA committee and chairman. They complained that knew nothing about the membership fee.
Although lunch was provided by the FTA committee, many of its members walked off frustrated
The Namaka taxi drivers has called out their treasurer for not informing them about a membership fee they were required to pay. They also claimed that paying a fee was wrong and unfair.
Namaka taxi driver Afiz Khan said: “Our treasurer from Namaka didn’t inform us about collecting money for membership in order for us to take part in the election. “The last-minute decision they made is totally wrong… we don’t agree with it and it is totally pathetic. They said they can’t commence with the election because we are not members and because we didn’t pay the membership fee.” FTA’s general secretary Ashwin Lal said they needed to follow procedures regarding membership.
“We could not commence the election because we realised that many members didn’t pay for their fees,” Mr Lal said.
“So a motion was put forward that the current committee will run the association again for another year, and this was seconded by a member as well.”