Government is persisting in its efforts to recoup billions of dollars in outstanding loans granted by the now wound-up Guyana National Cooperative Bank, (GNCB) and has considerably reduced the amounts, according to Keith Burrowes, who heads Guyana Cooperative Financial Services (GCFS), the agency set up by government to administer debt collection.
In an interview with Stabroek Business earlier this week, Burrowes said the GCFS has made “considerable progress” in debt-collection on behalf of the government. “We have managed to recover many loans which might have been considered irrecoverable. The debt recovery process actually takes the view that debtors with businesses that make a meaningful contribution to the economy ought to be given every opportunity to repay. Those businesses should not be allowed to go to the wall.”
Burrowes told Stabroek Business that the GCFS was currently preparing to propose to government that it expand its mandate to serve as the collector for all outstanding local debts to the state.
Burrowes is a former UN civil servant, who currently serves as Head of the Health Sector Development Unit, Chairman of the Boards of Directors of the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) and the Guyana National Newspapers Ltd (GNNL) as well as a board member of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo). He agreed to speak on each of the entities he is associated with.
“I recall that when we commenced our work with the GCFS a great many loans were considered irretrievable,” Burrowes said. “It was a matter of trying different approaches including, in some instances, moving to the courts to secure judgments. In other instances we were actually able to secure agreements with debtors under which the amounts would be paid over a period of time. What we accomplished was largely a function of being guided by a debt recovery manual which we had developed. Of course there are some outstanding loans that are irrecoverable but the point is that many more have actually been recovered through the efforts of the GCFS.”
Burrowes said what the GCFS had noted was that there had been cases in which debtors would plead insolvency when confronted with an official demand for debt repayment but would subsequently turn up at Go-Invest with a business plan. “What has been recommended is the creation of a database that allows for checking so that, for example, if a potential investor in a new local enterprise is discovered to be indebted to the NIS the question of that indebtedness will arise and will have to be dealt with before the processing of plans for this new venture gets underway.”
Burrowes also said that the GCFS had been able to secure settlement deeds with a number of debtors to the GNCB.
Go-Invest
Meanwhile, Burrowes told Stabroek Business that Go-Invest is in the process of producing an annual report covering the period 2010 and 2011. “This will be a public document that will reflect a continued interest in investing in Guyana by both the local and expatriate private sectors. Asked to provide specifics with regard to the level of interest in investment in Guyana Burrowes said he preferred to “wait on the numbers” but he was aware that considerable interest had been shown in investment in the ICT, mining and call centre sectors. Burrowes also disclosed that over the past two years companies had expressed a strong interest in the manufacture of ethanol in Guyana. “What the actual numbers will show is that over the past five years there has been a significant increase in the both the volume and the value of investments in Guyana and that in many cases concessions were granted to investors.”
And according to Burrowes it would be both misleading and inappropriate to describe Go-Invest as a one-stop shop. He said that while the agency serves as “a facilitator and a first point of contact for investors it does not expedite documentation and procedures” which the potential investor has to secure from various agencies that are responsible for specific investment-related issues.
Burrowes said that the agency had set itself a time frame of approximately five days to expedite its own role but delays occurred in cases where the potential investor may not have completed the relevant documentation which the agency needed to examine. “Distinguishing the role of Go-Invest is important since it helps the investor to understand what can be expected of the agency,” Burrowes said.
“One of the important accomplishments of Go-Invest over the years has been its success in significantly enhancing its relations with local executing agencies,” Burrowes said, though he acknowledged that the agency needed to do more to “market itself and its services effectively.”
GuySuCo
Asked to assess the current state of play in the sugar industry, Burrowes told Stabroek Business he believed perceptions of the sector often arose out of a misunderstanding of its complexity. “The sheer size and scale of GuySuCo’s operations dictates that it will continue to encounter challenges. When you understand the complexity of GuySuCo and the variables that impact on its performance you come to understand that the problems that affect the industry cannot always be justifiably be blamed on management deficiencies,” Burrowes said.
Addressing the tender process Burrowes said a great deal of positive work had been done to improve transparency and accountability. “Matters relating to the procurement of goods and services by state agencies have been under public discussion in Guyana for some time. What GuySuCo has done is to prepare a new procurement manual which has been in the making for about a year and which is now engaging the attention of the board. The aim here is to bring about greater transparency in the procurement process. GuySuCo has set itself the target of reducing its procurement costs by 20 per cent which is not a small target given the billions of dollars that are spent in procurement. That amount represents savings which have to do with the more efficient management and tender procedures as against improvements in operational and production-related efficiency,” he added.
