The country’s main group representing non-government organisations has voted not to elect new executives after a Constitutional review caused delays to its Annual General Meeting.
The Samoa Umbrella of Non Governmental Organisations (S.U.N.G.O) was due to hold its A.G.M. in December last year.
President of the Organization, Seumanuula Moana Clarke, said the decision to delay the election of a new executive came from the members and was supported by those at the meeting.
“This is the A.G.M. meeting for 2012-2013 which should’ve been done last October, but it’s been delayed to this year,” she said.
The next meeting for 2014 will be held in October. “With regards to the changing of board members and the council, that has now been cancelled because if we elect new members this year, their term of service will only be up to October, which is not fair.”
She said that the Constitutional review took longer than expected.
<!-- samoaobs-article(336x280)-created 040314 -->
<ins class="adsbygoogle"
style="display:inline-block;width:336px;height:280px"
data-ad-client="ca-pub-2469982834957525"
data-ad-slot="6399418022"></ins>
<script>
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script>{/googleAds}
“The main reason the meeting last year was delayed is because we had our Constitution reviewed and it took months for auditing. By the time we got it back it was quite late, in December.”
S.U.N.G.O. was supposed to hold a meeting around that time but by then it was the festive season and most members had gone overseas, she said.
Delaying the A.G.M. does not create any problems, she said.
“No the only problem that has been caused is the fact that the next A.G.M. would be sooner, which means any new members, the ones that were supposed to be picked today, would finish their term without the complete year that they should be in.
That’s why the members have said “no” to elections and called for the old Council to continue until October and the next A.G.M. meeting, she said.
She admitted that left them outside of their own rules. “In doing what we are doing now, we have actually broken the whole Constitution but as the members are the supreme power, they are the ones who can change the Constitution, which is what happened today.
“They have now sort of put the Constitution aside and verbally said this is what they want to do and all that, and as President of S.U.N.G.O. we have to bow to their wishes.
“So now we will still continue our services until the next A.G.M.” She said that breaking the Constitution was part of a range of issues they were looking at.
“We have to go back now and start planning and start bringing up all these issues and work out ways of resolving them.
“The first thing we will do is finish the review of our Constitution - it’s only just been reviewed but there are a lot of gaps, things missing from our Constitution right now.”
The S.U.N.G.O. website lists 139 member organisations.
<!-- samoa_observer.ws -->
<ins class="adsbygoogle"
style="display:inline-block;width:336px;height:280px"
data-ad-client="ca-pub-9419815128221199"
data-ad-slot="5306335075"></ins>
<script>
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script> {/googleAds}