‘They all have to go’
Disgruntled CaFAN members not satisfied with outcome of Bridgetown meeting
THE IMPASSE at the Caribbean Farmers Network (CaFAN) has claimed its first casualty, with Jethro Greene, its chief coordinator, being stripped of his post with immediate effect at the hastily called meeting in Barbados last Saturday.
But that is not enough for disgruntled members, who are slated to meet today to elect a new executive.
They are adamant that after two years of trying to get answers from the board, it was their decision to go public that prompted the meeting last Saturday.
“At this point, the membership continues to coordinate their efforts to restructure, and we are due to hold a virtual meeting on Februar y 15 to elect a new executive to chart the new way forward,” one of the dissatisfied members told The Gleaner.
“We have been calling for the resignation of all of the members of the board of directors based on no confidence in their leadership.”
NO CONFIDENCE
Added the representative: “The membership has no confidence in their ability to be objective and rational. We have no confidence in the directors’ leadership and as such, good governance, protocol, democracy, and simple common sense should have caused the board to finally realise that their leadership was no longer required.
“We regard their actions as disrespectful, shameful, and an example of extremely bad governance practices,” he declared.
The twin-island republic of Trinidad and Tobago, which had supported the en bloc removal of the board up until Saturday, has since backed out of that coalition.
Countries still committed to seeing the backs of the current board members are Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as Suriname.
Only four persons attended, while Greene participated via Skype, and a number of members opted not to attend as a mark of protest.
“In terms of going forward, we have taken some very calculated decisions to remove, with immediate effect, the secretariat from St Vincent, and we have agreed to move the secretariat to Trinidad and Tobago, under the watch of director Sookoo,” Grant told The Gleaner after the more than four-hour meeting.
He insisted that the decision to jettison Greene should not be interpreted as a reflection of his stewardship.
“There are certain issues that were raised in the media, which we sought clarification on, and we asked him to present the executive with the report on how CaFAN is structured because the secretariat actually drives all of the activities and the action in terms of negotiation with the funding agencies, in terms of dialoguing with the focal groups,” noted Grant, who is also president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society.