Dear Editor,
The greatest enigma Guyanese have experienced is the way forward for the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) – to close the estates, to diversify, to make all viable and then sell some, and to downsize and to ‘upsize’. Even the sugar workers who were dismissed are being fed with euphemistic epithets to give them some mental reprieve.
We were told in February this year that G$10-15 billion is needed to open the closed estates and then sell them to fetch a ‘good’ price and then a week later we were told that G$30 billion is needed ‘to provide much capital injection, support infrastructure maintenance, and upgrades at Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt’.
There are so many variations, combinations and permutations that Guyanese are perplexed and in a quandary as to what actually is the fate of GuySuCo and those who depends on it. The G$15 billion loan was supposed to be finalised in March this year but that did not come to pass. However, what is more mysterious is the fact that although the G$30 billion loan did materialise, it is just apparently sitting in the bank accumulating interest which will cost us US$40 million. It was supposed to be utilised for capital injection and infrastructure maintenance and other upgrades. This apparently did not happen, since the starting of the second crop was postponed because of impassable dams. The Special Purpose Unit (SPU) had the entire out-of-crop period to fix the dams but they did not and it is evident that any amount of rainfall will surely affect the achievement of this crop’s target. This is what happened in the first crop this year. If the SPU is so short-sighted as to not fix the dams, it makes us wonder how they are going to make GuySuCo viable.
In fact, during the out of crop period, I saw a backbreaking exercise at one of the estates where tractor and bell loader operators have to break concrete columns to fill holes at the back-dam. It just goes to show the ingenuity the estate managers must employ to get the crop started whilst the SPU is sitting on the G$30 billion loan oblivious of the struggles faced by management.
However, apart from the harsh economic realities which the dismissed sugar workers have to grapple with, the depressed state of the communities affected and the overall economic decline, the embarrassingly short-sighted and dumb decision to close the Skeldon Estate is now affecting the profit-making Skeldon Energy Company Incorporated (SECI) which despite millions being spent to get it in operation, there is not enough biomass to generate power. When the Estate was in operation, the source was the bagasse from sugarcane production but with the closure of the Estate and the downsizing of sugar production, this cannot be realised. In addition, though a meeting was held earlier this year to source wood, cone husk and rice straw to be substitutes, this is yet to be realised. The former President of the Central Corentyne Chamber of Commerce, Mohamed Raffik had bluntly said ‘it is not possible’ and it seems that his prophecy is being fulfilled. Therefore, we can expect to have frequent blackouts since the back-up from the Skeldon Energy Company Incorporated (SECI) to the Guyana Power and Light grid will be unavailable.
The coalition Government, when in Opposition had lambasted the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government for the subsidising of GuySuCo to keep it afloat, to inject much needed capital and to support infrastructure maintenance. During the period of 2011 to 2015, the PPP injected G$26 billion dollars with all the estates in operation with no job loss.
On the other hand the coalition Government in less than three years injected more than G$32 billion, and managed to close three estates, dismiss 7000 workers and could only manage to produce just over 100,000 tonnes of sugar. Now another G$30 billion is needed to make the estates viable. It makes me wonder if this coalition Government will ever make GuySuCo viable or the G$30 billion loan is just another victim of the gross mismanagement and squandermania we have witnessed during the past three years!
I am in total agreement with the Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo that the G$30 billion could have gone into restructuring the industry, while keeping all of the estates open and GuySuCo’s workforce employed and engaged.
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
RDC Councillor,
Region Six