The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) Rajendra Singh has told Stabroek News that his contract has not been renewed although he will be returning to the state-owned corporation in another capacity.
Singh said, “The news has been saying that the deputy chief executive officer will return as the CEO,” but he then observed that the government had done very little to inform the board of directors and GuySuCo management about the changes.
Singh said that he was told of the non-renewal decision officially a few days ago: “I was told that they would be going along with the termination clause in my contract and the decision was done.” He said that various statements had been made in the press and especially during Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon’s weekly press briefings about impending changes. However, while the media seemed knowledgeable about the adjustments at the highest level of the corporation, thus far the GuySuCo board and management were not sure of any follow-up decisions which might have been taken, Singh said.
Singh did say that next week hopefully he would know what other decisions had been made.
Stabroek News asked Singh why the struggling corporation was so tight-fisted with information considering the current state of the industry, to which he responded that he wished it wasn’t so.
Several industry experts have publicly criticised the government’s handling of the sugar sector and by extension GuySuCo which in 2013 produced its lowest first crop ever of 48,000 tonnes.
Meanwhile CEO of GuySuCo Paul Bhim said that he had not been made aware of any changes he too would face. He said, “Right now we don’t know, I wish I did, but right now I can’t tell you what the plans are.”
If what Dr Luncheon alluded to does in fact become reality, Bhim will lose his position in the near future. President Donald Ramotar told Stabroek News previously that the revamping of the board and management would all occur before GuySuCo had to present itself in front of the parliamentary Economic Select Committee in October.
