The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) has been assured by President Donald Ramotar that the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the cash-strapped GuySuCo will not be receiving a US$25,000 (equivalent to $5M) monthly wage package.
GAWU sought assurances from the government in the light of concern that Chairman Raj Singh may potentially earn such an amount on a monthly basis, inclusive of various allowances, GAWU President Komal Chand told Stabroek News.
“We are very concerned… that someone that is going to head an industry that is in such a financial state ‒ it can’t happen!” Chand declared, while adding that the company could not possibly allow such an “extravagant” showcase of “excess,” while workers earn so little in basic wages.
He stated that the annual subventions that are doled out to GuySuCo are utilized to pay workers’ salaries. The 2013 Budget’s $1 billion GuySuCo subvention was once again used to pay workers, Minister of Agriculture Dr Leslie Ramsammy had told the National Assembly during the budget debate.
Chand told Stabroek News that he spoke with Ramotar and was assured that the GuySuCo Chairman would not be receiving such an extravagant salary. “He said to me that as long as he was President, no head of GuySuCo’s board would be receiving a US$25,000 salary a month,” Chand said.
GAWU’s president said that GuySuCo was in a grave financial state and that its earning potential has diminished significantly, which meant that the state-owned corporation had to engage in strategy aimed at reviving the sugar industry.
Chand added that the salaries of the various heads at GuySuCo should be capped and that they needed to be reviewed depending on the corporation’s earning ability. He said that as the union president, he had an obligation to workers to ensure that their needs are met and that GuySuCo is held accountable to workers.
Asked about Singh’s salary, GuySuCo’s Chief Executive Officer Paul Bhim told Stabroek News that he was not directly involved at the board level. “I don’t have that information, so I am not able to comment on any of that,” he said.
Bhim has recently stated that GuySuCo had a serious financial problem and that the company could not offer an enticing minimum wage, which has seen an exodus of workers from the sugar industry in recent years. Bhim noted that GuySuCo was looking to revamp training programmes and gear the sector toward training and keeping workers through job satisfaction and succession planning.
Dr Rupert Roopnaraine of APNU has called for a full probe of GuySuCo’s finances. The APNU MP stated that GuySuCo’s board was finalising Singh’s salary, including allowances. He said that the base salary may not be US$25,000 but through various allowances the total monthly package was expected to reach US$25,000.
In January, in response to questions posed by APNU MP Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, Ramsammy identified Singh, who lives in New Jersey in the United States, as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Ramsammy said that Singh was in daily contact with the Agriculture Ministry and with other board members and the management of GuySuCo and that he travels on an economy class ticket each month or whenever he visits these shores to carry out his duties, and that travel and other costs, including lodging, are paid through GuySuCo.
Dr Roopnaraine stated that GuySuCo was operating at a “ridiculous” level of “incompetence” to be planning a $5M monthly salary for Singh, especially after it recorded its lowest first crop in history at 48,000 tonnes of sugar produced against a target of 70,000-tonnes.
