Motions to end the €35 million ISIS debacle are among those set down for the two-day Biennial Delegate Meeting of the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU), which opens in Waterford today.
Three motions from the An Post Employees Credit Union are aimed at laying to rest the league's effort at developing a standardised computer system for its member credit unions.
One motion is to the effect that money borrowed for the project from the league's savings protection scheme, should be regarded as a bad debt and be written off forthwith.
Another effectively says all the money spent on the project should be written off and no further money put at risk in an attempt to recoup some of the losses from OSI, the organisation which gave advice on the project.
Finally, the credit union has put down a motion that ILCUTECH Ltd, the company set up to run the project, should be liquidated and wound up.
The ILCUTECH Ltd report to the meeting, which has been seen by The Irish Times, notes that the ISIS project was effectively wound up in February 2001.
It notes that the company can no longer be considered a going concern. The financial statements are prepared on a break-up basis rather than on a going concern basis.
The profit and loss account for the year ended December 31st, 2002, shows an accumulated deficit of €21,477,464. The balance sheet shows the company has €159,121 in cash in the bank. It has creditors of €21.6 million.
The creditors are broken down with trade creditors and accruals being owed €2.57 million; the league being owed €12.2 million; and €6.8 million being owed arising from advance payments from league members for software services.
Last year €14.7l million in advance payments was credited to the profit and loss account because a legal liability for payment was deemed to no longer exist.
It is believed that a report to the league on the issue of whether it should seek to sue OSI has recommended that no such action should be taken.
A motion from the board will recommend the adoption of software called Pearls monitoring software.
According to the World Council of Credit Unions website, Pearls is the "only software of its kind to combine a powerful relational database with an internationally proven methodology for improving operational efficiency".
The system includes a ranking tool for comparing credit unions, and a business planning tool to create strategic plans that help performance, according to the site.
One source has said an issue which arises with the system is that it could force credit unions to divert surpluses earmarked for dividends. The money would be used to boost reserves and offset bad debts. This would place pressure on the abilities of a number of credit unions to pay dividends to members at a time when their investment returns are falling, according to the source.
The issue is likely to be discussed during the weekend meeting. The league has 2.5 million members and assets of €8 billion.
However, the fall-out from the ISIS project and disgruntlement with the league has led to some credit unions disaffiliating. Others are being threatened with expulsion because of their refusal to use an insurance product sold by the league.
