TAWU members demand audit reports
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Thursday October 29, 2015 16:08
The members have decried that the union has not audited its books since 2012, and were not happy that no reasons have been advanced as to why there have been no audited reports in the past two years. These concerns were raised at the union’s annual conference held at Ave Marea Pastoral centre recently.
“We expect to be given the audited report whenever there is an annual conference. It is very important for the executive committee to account for every single Thebe that it spends. It is our members who are paying monthly subscription fees and we are shocked to learn that the union does not have money,” said Shirley Monametsi.
Meanwhile TAWU publicity and Education secretary Martha Molema said the reason why the union did not audit was because they had taken a resolution as the executive committee to only audit after every two years. “There is nothing that we are hiding as the executive committee. We cannot pay P20,000 every year for audit. We think it is cheaper to audit our finances in two years and the audit for 2013/2014 will be done soon. Every member can come and collect a copy of the audited report when it is out,” said Molema.
She encouraged TAWU members to take their union seriously by paying monthly subscription fees and recruiting new members. She said there are many colleges in Botswana but the majority of lecturers prefer to join unions that do not understand anything about tertiary education problems. Others, however, felt it was time the union found other means of financial sustainability. TAWU member, Jobie Ramaribana called on the union members and its leadership to find ways of raising funds.
“We cannot rely on subscription fees only. The union needs to find ways of raising funds, we can achieve it through buying shares from other companies and acquiring land also,” said Ramaribana. He argued that branches should also be empowered by the executive so that they can become active in fund raising.
He said if the branches could sell branded union T-shirts, shirts and tracksuits, it would help in sustaining the organisation.