Sixty co-ops, sixty problems
after more than sixty years of experience in cooperative societies, it has been proven that their harms and corruptions are much more than their advantages.
in an interview with brother muhammad al-shaya, the well-known businessman, he said that kuwait, and perhaps north korea and cuba, are still among the rare countries that follow the system of cooperative societies, and how wrong and unreasonable that we have sixty cooperative societies with sixty boards of directors, sixty general managers, a sales manager, legal advisor, personnel manager, and an army of workers, security men, clerks, and administrators for each association.
al-shaya suggested abolishing the current structure or system of cooperative societies, by establishing two or three publicly owned companies, so that they would do the same work that organizations do, albeit in a more effective and professional manner, so that huge savings could be achieved, by reducing the enormous administrative expenses, and have the greater negotiation ability when purchasing, providing better goods, at a better price, and more advanced service.
these new companies can buy the properties of the associations, so that each one of them will have 20 associations, for example, distributed equitably geographically, and their capital and properties, and the shares of their shareholders will be transferred to the new companies, and this can be done in more than one satisfactory way for the residents of the area, and for the new shareholders in the new companies, which will offer its shares for public subscription so that its incorporation laws prevent any party from owning more than a certain percentage of its shares.
the new situation will also end the chronic headache that the ministry of social affairs suffers from with the boards of directors of these associations, which may not have been spared from corruption or suspicions, and members of their boards of directors stealing their money and forcing the ministry to isolate the violating board and refer all or some of its members to the prosecution to investigate them for the actions attributed to them, to appoint temporary boards of directors in their place, then to go back and hold elections for a new board of directors, so that ruin and corruption will return again and again, endlessly.
muhammad al-shaya’s proposal is worth considering and adopting, as the current system of cooperative societies is ruined, harmful, and dilapidated. it encourages corruption and waste and has no effective effect on any party. it is like a cancer whose time has come to be eradicated.
