House clears Abra electric coop of irregularites

Bangued, Abra, Philippines – The House committee on cooperative development has already cleared the Abra Electric Cooperative of alleged irregularities.

Abra Electric Cooperative Board of Directors headed by their president David Guzman explained to Rep. Jose Ping-ay, House committee chairman and other congressmen during the House investigation that Abreco have been above-board in all its actions at the heels of complaints it has not been conducting general assemblies, its officials have been appointed irregularly, among others.

Earlier, Abra Rep. Joy Bernos in House Resolution 423 asked the House to probe Abreco over controversies in the management of the electric cooperative. Bernos had questioned that Abreco has not been holding its general membership assemblies for three years, hence its board of directors and its general manager had been holding on to their positions illegally.

But Abreco general manager Loreto Seares Jr., maintains no general assemblies were called for the past three years because the cooperative is on a transition period toward registering itself at the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) from its old National Electrification Administrion (NEA) registration.

From March 2007, Seares said CDA gave them two years to prepare the requirements in its registration including the fixing of its by-laws.

Earlier, it was found out that Abreco’s by-laws missed to include standard requirements in choosing candidates for the cooperative’s general manager.

Abreco also said that after CDA gave them another year to finalize all requirements, a general assembly planned in March 2010 was re-scheduled to March in 2011 because of the new Cooperative Code of 2009 that again changed the requirements for cooperative registrations.

Seares vowed in the 2011 general assembly of the cooperative, proposed amendments in their by-laws will be ratified which would be the basis in choosing the new set of BOD and the general manager.