Dear Editor,
The Skeldon Estate is much touted to be a dismal failure engineered by the PPP Government, and has been used ad lib by many politicians as the proverbial ‘whipping boy’. This is done until now, whenever GuySuCo is being discussed.
However, the CoI commissioned by this Government gave detailed capital expenditures which can transform the entire GuySuCo, making it viable and profitable by 2020. This is the same argument proposed by the Leader of the Opposition, Dr Jagdeo, who has said that the G$30 billion syndicated loan can be utilised to keep all the estates going.
The more I analyse the scenario, the more I am convinced that GuySuCo can be saved from the guillotine; but the political will to do so is unabashedly lacking by this Government!
Let us put this into perspective. The vendetta against the sugar industry is historical, and was aborted in 1991 when there was a massive privatisation drive by the PNC to sell and enrich. However, the opportunity presented itself again in 2015, and the Coalition Government lost no time in getting back on track to sound the death knell of the industry.
The mantra that “GuySuCo is too big to fail” sounds hollow, weak, and misleading to the extent of being deceptive.
It is an accepted and undisputed fact that Skeldon Estate is capable of producing 75 tons per hectare, 1,000,000 tons per annum, 110,000 tons of sugar, 40,000 tons of molasses and a tc/ts of around 9 tons of cane to produce a ton of sugar. In addition, the co-generation plant has the capability of generating 40mWh of power.
In the years 2015 and 2016, even though it had not reached this potential, Skeldon Estate was producing in excess of 30,000 tons of sugar per annum. The CoI had recommended that US$5.2 million budgeted for Skeldon from 2016 to 2020 could bring the estate to realise its true potential.
The CoI had concluded that Gy $21 billion, or US$102 million, can restore and secure (all) the estates in satisfactory operating condition. It must be borne in mind that the SPU has now secured G$30 billion, which is more than was recommended for the entire sugar industry!
The CoI has made it clear that “mechanisation is increasingly important to sugar cane production in Guyana”, and can improve cost efficiencies to such an extent as would make the industry viable and profitable.
Why did the Government fail to go this route, a recommendation for which it had paid in excess of G$52 million?
The CoI had estimated that with the recommended capital injection, by the end of 2017, Skeldon would have produced 61,745 tons of sugar, Rose Hall 37,836 tons of sugar, and Wales 29,243 tons of sugar, for a total of 128,827 tons of sugar. At the current moment, the entire industry would barely eke out 100,000 tons of sugar. With the recommendation of the CoI, the entire industry would have produced 300,386 tons of sugar!
This is again evidence that Dr Jagdeo is absolutely correct! It is still not too late to use the G$30 billion syndicated loan and make the entire industry operable again.
The CoI had recommended that each estate be involved in co-generation and the processing of refined sugar, for which there is a demand of 200,000 tons within Caricom. It must be noted that the SPU is regurgitating the same recommendation. The CoI had specifically recommended: the installation of high- and medium- pressure boilers, and to perform the necessary modifications to the drives and process that would reduce power requirements. A boiler and turbine alternator cost only US$11 million. The excess electricity would have been sold to the national grid.
It must further be noted that the CoI had recommended that Skeldon factory be retained and made reliable by remedying the faults and narrowing the mismatch between field and factory; and that a sugar refinery should be built at Skeldon to brand and sell molasses. However, the CoI noted that no capital expenditure was done at Skeldon in 2015. This would seem to suggest that the factory was deliberately allowed to deteriorate, so that it can be placed under the guillotine!
It is evident that this Coalition Government conveniently followed the recommendations of the CoI, and disregarded some recommendations because that course of action suited its vindictiveness.
Government deliberately exacerbated the debilitating conditions which exist in the industry as a prelude and an excuse to sell. Furthermore, it deliberately took the ‘wrong turn’ to magnify the sufferings of the sugar workers and their families (perceived as PPP supporters), who did not get a wage increase since 2015; have had many benefits snatched from them; and are still anxiously awaiting receipt of their severance payments.
However, the Coalition contradicted itself in more ways than one; as is manifested in the fact that on one hand it says that Skeldon, Rose Hall, Wales and Enmore are not viable, but is yet claiming to the investors that those estates can be made viable and profitable. If that is so, then why are we selling those estates?
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
RDC Councillor, Region 6