With bonuses for sugar workers in doubt and the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) missing targets, Agriculture Minister Noel Holder has noted that the Corporation is so cash-strapped that paying sugar workers a bonus may not be possible.
In an interview with this publication on the sidelines of an event, Holder acknowledged that sugar workers are supposed to be able to get their bonuses once sugar production targets are met. However, he also noted that GuySuCo’s cash-flow woes could be a deciding factor.
“The incentives are built-in. But GuySuCo doesn’t have funds. We would like GuySuCo to be able to benefit from the bonus public servants are benefitting from now, in terms of increases. But where will the funds come from?” Holder questioned.
“Funding has always been an issue. Funds were going to GuySuCo and all the estates, in a loss-making situation, have denied the (leeway) for spending for other parts of the Government. Now we’ve right-sized, funds are being released for other parts of the Government. And we’d like GuySuCo to do well enough so all the workers can (benefit)”.
Holder posited that with the necessary input, fully functioning factories, markets in the Caribbean Community (Caricom), white sugar and good prices for that sugar, GuySuCo can turn its fortunes around.
“The factories are old. It’s a question of getting the necessary (equipment) to retool them. That’s posing some challenges. But it’s not insurmountable (once) the funds are available. And there have been some delays in divesting the four estates that were closed. They were supposed to be divested and the funds made available to GuySuCo”.
When it comes to details about the divestment, including funds and the allocation of land for former sugar workers to farm, Holder referred such questions to the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).
GuySuCo and NICIL have been at loggerhead for some time over the divestment process. At one point, NICIL’s Special Purpose Unit (SPU) Head, Colvin Heath-London, had said that GuySuCo failed to account for how they used the money allocated to them, something GuySuCo had denied.
GuySuCo had, in turn, blamed NICIL for divesting the assets of various estates but not informing them; much less, turning the proceeds of the sale over to GuySuCo. There have even been accusations that certain items were undervalued.
Figures released earlier this month by the Guyana Agriculture and General Workers Union (GAWU) had indicated that sugar production was lagging in all three functioning estates- Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt.
Meanwhile, GAWU had subsequently indicated that it received a memorandum dated October 29 from the GuySuCo stating that the Corporation had decided to extend the ongoing second sugar crop to December 20, 2019.
“Our Union in a statement of October 25 did point out that the Corporation could not have realised its production target by the time the crop was set to end. Of course, in that statement that based on the performance of the Corporation during the crop, thus far, we estimated that the target may not be realized at Albion and Blairmont Estates”.
“The Corporation, in its memorandum, said ‘there is the possibility of some Estate[s] carrying over canes into 1st Crop 2020’. It seems to say, from our point of view, that the sugar company is anticipating that not all the canes would be harvested and, thus, the crop target will be missed. Time, of course, will ultimately answer this question,” GAWU had said.
