Dear Editor,
The Minister of Agriculture should be particularly cautious when discussing a sugar industry which others obviously know better than he.
So that, as much as possible, he should avoid impetuous pronouncements, and allow the management of GuySuCo to speak more authoritatively, and from facts.
His latest, albeit defensive, foray was at least innocuous, as it was not sufficiently informed, to convince ‘stakeholders’ that the original construction of the Skeldon Factory was not defective to the extent that his predecessors publicly discussed the issue of contract penalties, more than once.
If it is that incumbent Minister cannot research past press releases on the subject, at least he can be updated by Tony Vieira’s recent analysis of the industry in 2012 in Stabroek News.
To portray that a South African team is currently ‘doing’ work ‘additional’ to that of their Chinese counterpart can hardly be credible, if in fact their mandate included restoring the factories current grinding rates of less than 200 TCH to its originally designed 350 TCH.
On the whole the Board of GuySuCo, if it still exists and the senior management team should be spared these unnecessary blushes.
Yours faithfully,
EB John