PAID up members of the island's biggest union should demand to know how labour bosses are spending their weekly dues.

And questions raised by former Bermuda Industrial Union stalwart Raymond Russell are being echoed by Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards, who claims that poor accounting practices should be cause for concern amongst the rank and file membership.

Retired hotel worker Mr. Russell, who spent years representing colleagues in contractual negotiations with management, claims that BIU members "have been taught to be passive" - paying in their subscriptions without question and not knowing how those funds are being used.

And financial advisor Mr. Richards has raised similar concerns after submitting questions to Parliament relating to the annual accounts of the BIU Members Credit Union - the organisation set up to act as a 'bank' for BIU members to deposit their savings and take out loans at low rates of interest. Questions over the financial stability of the Credit Union have been raised in recent months after it was revealed that loans were not being made available to members.

Both organisations are years behind in filing Annual Financial Statements - which should be submitted to the Accountant General within three months of the end of the financial year. The BIU has not filed accounts since 2002 while the Credit Union is two years behind in auditing its books.

This week Mr. Russell questioned why the BIU recently bought a 20 per cent stake in a cement company - despite not having up-to-date books. He questioned why Finance Minister Paula Cox did not step in to stop the cement company deal and he also pointed out that the union faces a $6.5 million bill after losing a legal dispute with Government over the construction of the Berkeley Senior School. That ruling is currently being appealed.

"Concerning the BIU picking up shares in a cement company - that is a slap in the face to the union membership," Mr. Russell said.

"The books are not completed and it's my opinion they should not let that sort of financial outlay be dispensed until the accounts are clear.

"Those shares have probably cost the union a couple of million dollars. How is that going to benefit the grass roots members of the union? It's my opinion that those shares are going to benefit the same people who have been benefitting for years - the union officers.That has been the trend for the last 25 years.

"But the real problem underlying all of this is that the union members have been taught to be passive to the officers. The officers have never given them knowledge of the procedures that make the union tick - and how their money is being spent. Nepotism and cronyism are well established in the organisation now. It's kind of mind-boggling that the members have no clue what sort of remuneration the officers are getting. That paints a picture. The time is here now for the members to demand what actually goes down in the finances of the BIU.

"The Government, and the Finance Minister in particular, should have made sure by now that members should be able to know what the officers are making. I believe the Finance Minister is playing possum at the expense of the people of Bermuda. As individuals, 50 or 60 per cent of the members are out of the economy right now. I think that, with the type of season we've had, the members should pressurise the officers to do something for them collectively, which is needed.

"A law firm that looked at the books in'97 they discovered that 90 per cent of revenue was going to management - and I don't think that has changed. And yet in terms of unemployment benefits, the union pays next to nothing out to its members - most union members wouldn't receive even $100 over a period of several months.

"For an organisation that's meant to be helping people, it's just mind-boggling. But I think eventually this crisis will help the union membership demand some answers because at the moment a lack of information is keeping them bound. They don't even know the remuneration the officers are getting. When huge amounts of money are being spent buying into private companies, that sort of decision - and any subsequent profits - should be going to the full

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just the executive board. Yet I can guarantee this wasn't put to a union vote or anything. They didn't call in the membership and ask them if they wanted to invest their money - their contributions - in the new cement company. That thing came as a surprise to everyone - it was done in secret and that's what they're used to doing while the members just suffer in silence.

"They have gotten away with this type of unlawful behaviour since 1973 and now they feel they have a right to do it."

Mr. Richards recently submitted questions to Finance Minister Paula Cox concerning the finances of the Credit Union. He asked if the Credit Union had filed audited financial statements in compliance with the law, when in the past three years these accounts had been filed, and what steps the authorities could take to enure the statements were filed on time.

Ms Cox replied that "given delays in the past", the Credit Union had been ordered to file its statements with the Bermuda Monetary Authority and that meetings between the parties had been held "to discuss and map a way forward".

The Minister added that December 2005 statements had been completed, and the 2006 audit was in progress.

"In the case of the Credit Union, during the last year the BMA has been meeting regularly with the Credit Union management," Ms Cox said.

"An enhanced reporting regime has been established with which the Credit Union has been compliant Considerable and sustained progress is being made with respect to bring the Credit Union current with its annual statutory reporting requirement."

But yesterday Mr. Richards accused Government of trying to "obfuscate the obvious with all this verbiage".

"It's pretty egregious," he said.

"The Credit Union has people's money and laws are put into place so that that money is accounted for - that doesn't seem to be the situation here.

"They haven't had any financial statements since December 2005. The law states that these statements should be filed within three months of the end of the year. Clearly therefore they are in violation of the law - we still don't have the statements for 2006 and 2007 and we're now well into 2008. It seems they have gone to great lengths to obfuscate the obvious

"I think this should be a concern for the union members. Accounting is a pretty straightforward process really and these Financial Statements should be promulgated. The reason for having these statements is so that members can see what the financial position of the organisation is and whether management has things under control. Lateness brings into question whether those intentions are being met."

"We have heard that, historically there have been a lot of problems in this area.If they are continually being filed late it brings into question whether there's competence and proper financial control being exercised."

The Mid-Ocean News contacted the Bermuda Industrial Union yesterday afternoon and was told that BIU President Chris Furbert was off the island. This newspaper then left a message for General Secretary Molly Burgess. Ms Burgess did not respond to our request for an interview before press time last night.