KAMPALA – The Assistant Commissioner for Cooperatives in the Ministry of Trade and Cooperatives (MTIC), Robert Mpakibi has urged leaders of cooperatives around the country to always insist on using the established regulations or legal guidelines in the management of their establishments.
Mpakibi says cooperatives should endeavor to refer to the available laws and regulations for guidance in financial and social audits, management and other legal requirements to avoid running their cooperatives into legal ditches that can lead to their collapse.
Mpakibi, who represented the Registrar of Cooperatives in the MTIC says, cooperatives need to keep their organs functional at all time, and stick to the established operational procedures to avoid unnecessary management sanctions.
While addressing a training session for cooperatives and District Commercial Officers in Namugongo, Mpakibi acknowledged the fact that many cooperators are ignorant of the sector rules and regulations in Uganda. He encouraged them to endeavor to learn and follow them always.
“You people need to stick to the rules and regulations of this business. You do not bend a single regulation, because it will catch up with you. You should enhance your knowledge levels about the law and compliance to handle a wide range of areas,” he added.
He stressed that cooperatives should always ensure that institutional financial audits are carried out by fully certified bodies or persons sanctioned by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda as provided for by the Cooperative Societies Act as amended in 2020.
“You can only be sure if your financial audit is done by a certified auditor,” he said.
Mpakibi also revealed that the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives is carrying out a cooperative census to validate the cooperative register, and ascertain the cooperative movement’s contribution to the national economy.
“We have so many cooperatives in the register, we need to find out how many really exist. We are examining the level of compliance, their participation in the activities and their contribution to the economy,” Mpakibi said.
The 4 day leaders orientation training organized and conducted by The Uhuru Institute for Social Development under the auspices of the Coop360 Network, a platform that so far brings together 50,000 cooperators from across Uganda aimed at skilling the District Commercial Officers and selected cooperative leaders in areas like cooperative identity and fundamentals, financial and social audits, taxation, strategy development, and conflict prevention and management.
Denis Odeba, the Senior Officer Learning and Organizational Development at The Uhuru Institute says the training initiative aimed at building a sustainable operational environment for the cooperators with skills, knowledge and proper understanding of the cooperative identity, fundamentals and business practice.
“Knowledge sharing in cooperative business is key to social development, where different players contribute to the community development agenda like agriculture, education and others in a collective manner,” he added.
Under the Coop 360 Network, several cooperators have been skilled in multiple business aspects to support the sustainability of the cooperative movement.
The District Commercial Officer – Kamuli, Fredrick Ssentongo, who also attended the training says, the training and networking was so handy that it would address most of the challenges cooperators have been facing, especially those that are financial and operational.
“Many of the cooperatives especially SACCOs and other groups think a cooperative is a charity, where you are just given money without investing,” he said.
He says cooperators need to appreciate that fact that they need to invest, save, pay back the loans and sustain the business like any.
The District Commercial Officer, Bududa Wafula Hashim says, many cooperatives have collapsed due to governance challenges.
“The leaders are mismanaging the cooperatives due to ignorance of the rules and the regulations. Such a training will go a long way in enabling us manage such and change the trends,” he says.
The trainees included; leaders of cooperatives such as Kamuli Entrepreneurs Development Organization, Ngora District Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Kapsukwar Maize Producers SACCO, Bushika Area Cooperative Enterprise from Kamuli, Ngora, Bukwo and Bududa districts respectively alongside their respective District Commercial Officers.
https://thecooperator.news/cooperatives-trained-on-business-recovery-in-post-covid-19-pandemic/
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