Although Government has made it clear that the Board of Directors of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) headed by Professor Clive Thomas is the legitimate one, former Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall claimed this Board has no legal status.
In fact, Nandlall said the Board headed by Colvin Heath-London which is registered and listed on the Registrar of Companies for the same company should be the legally recognised one. He said any decision taken by the first Board must be viewed as unlawful, illegal and in violation of the Companies Act.
Nandall told Guyana Times that there cannot be two Boards of Directors running the affairs of GuySuCo at the same time. He said if indeed the Board under Heath-London is registered then it remains legal until the Government take steps to revoke its appointment and reinstall the old Board.
“This entire fiasco demonstrates that there is confusion in Government with respect to the management of GuySuCo and the future of the industry… You can only have one legally functioning GuySuCo Board,” he opined. He said Government was obsessed with controlling every aspect of the country’s management.
When contacted on Tuesday for a comment on the status and chairmanship of the GuySuCo Board, Agriculture Minister Noel Holder declined to comment. The Minister abruptly ended the call with the reporter, expressing concern with being recorded and allegedly not being told during a previous interview, despite the fact that he was advised that an official comment was being solicited.
Officials at the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) and the Finance Ministry were also tight-lipped about the chairmanship of the GuySuCo Board.
During a press conference on Friday, April 13, 2018, Finance Minister Winston Jordan said contrary to paid full page advertisements that were carried in the daily newspapers and a Cabinet subcommittee’s decision, there is no new Board for the GuySuCo and consequently, no new Chairman.
Asked by members of the media whether Heath-London was Chairman of GuySuCo, Jordan replied in the negative. “He is not the Chairman of GuySuCo. The Chairman of GuySuCo is still Dr (Clive) Thomas. The Board of GuySuCo ends this month, in keeping with his responsibilities, Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder has to bring to the Cabinet a new Board to be in place when this old one is finished.”
He added that there was a subcommittee that met and discussed the issue of GuySuCo and its Board.
“That subcommittee was chaired by Vice President (Carl) Greenidge and it included me, Ministers Harmon and Holder,” he further clarified. “That committee decided, unanimously the life of the GuySuCo Board comes to an end and a new Board will be put in place headed by Heath-London.”
Jordan denied there was a political split between the Alliance For Change (AFC) and the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) on the issue. He acknowledged, however, that the subcommittee’s decision died a swift death when the full Cabinet overturned the proposed appointments.
Stressing that this was within the Cabinet’s right, Jordan related that the full Cabinet deferred the decision until it could get more information on the nominees and thus rendered the appointments null and void.
“… all subcommittee decisions have to be carried to the full Cabinet. It is when it went to the full Cabinet that the full Cabinet said no, we need to look at this more closely. They want to be sure where GuySuCo is going and who are these people.”
Asked whether Holder, an AFC member, was part of the dissenting voices, Jordan said even if he knew, he would not say. He noted that there have been several instances where the subcommittee’s decisions are vetoed.
According to the advertisement, which was published on March 14, 2018, the new Board was approved by Cabinet on February 26, 2018, and the appointments were supposed to take effect on March 1. There had long been rumours of a split at the executive level over the decision, however.
The old Board of Directors had comprised Economist, Dr Clive Thomas as the Chairman and Frederick Singh as the Secretary. The Directors were Louise Bouyea, Fritz McLean, John Browman, Nigel Cumberbatch, Sharon Roopchand-Edwards, Nazim Ali and George Jervis.
A list of the newly proposed Board was circulated in sections of the media. On that list were Komal Singh, Verna Adrian, Fritz Mc Lean, Rosh Khan (Jr), George Jervis, Arianne McLean, Vishnu Panday, Annette Arjoon-Martins and two GuySuCo executives.
