Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud has announced that the financial records of Project Gold facility at Enmore, East Coast Demerara will be available this week on Guyana Sugar Corporation’s website for review and audit by interested parties.
The comments were made after the auditor general, in accordance with the law, blocked an offer by GuySuCo to Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram to facilitate an audit.
“Notwithstanding the advice of the auditor general – the law is the law and we have to respect that, only the auditor general can give anyone permission to conduct an audit – I’m saying, starting this week, GuySuCo will be putting on its website all the records of the Enmore packaging plant for anyone to review and audit or to look at what they want,” Persaud stated. “It is in our interest as a government and also in the interest of the people of Guyana that we ensure that the corporation has the highest level of accountability and highest level internal efficiency.”
According to Persaud, government has a strong and committed policy for openness, since more awareness on the project augurs well for the future of the industry.
The entire ordeal stemmed from a letter Ram wrote to the editor, which was published on May 17 in the Kaieteur News, questioning the cost of the US$12.5 million project, which involved, among other activities, construction of the packaging plant and upgrade of the existing Enmore factory. Indian contractor, Surrendra Engineering Incorporated executed the project, and the plant was commissioned on May 9, 2011.
Ram, in his letter, pointed out that Kenya’s largest sugar miller, Mumias Sugar Company (MSC), built at a cost of US$3 million a new 11-machine, state-of-the-art packaging plant with a daily capacity of 700 tonnes of sugar.
In response, Minister Persaud threw out a challenge to open up GuySuCo for a forensic audit of Project Gold. Ram and Kaieteur News’ publisher Glenn Lall subsequently took up the offer, with Lall stating his willingness to fund the activity and Ram doing the audit.
“There is nothing to hide; there is absolutely nothing to hide in this regard,” the agriculture minister declared on Sunday.
He was addressing sugar workers of the closed Diamond Estate when he made the remarks. Persaud explained to the severed employees that GuySuCo has had its share of problems, but he is adamant they are being overcome. He assured the workers, who were offered employment at the LBI estate, that sugar in Guyana has a bright future under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration.
The new Enmore facility has the capacity to produce 40,000 tonnes initially, moving upwards to 80,000 tonnes in later years. Prior to the plant, GuySuCo’s production of packaged sugar was approximately 8000 tonnes per annum. GuySuCo expects that the new Enmore plant would significantly transform sugar production in Guyana, expanding its market share for the packaged commodity, which already enjoys a favourable price internationally. The plant was built with financial help from the European Union (EU) as part of its support to the Guyana Sugar Action Plan in response to the reform of Europe’s agricultural policy. The reform resulted in Guyana losing billions of dollars in revenue annually since 2007.
