Noting that the livelihoods of 16,000 sugar workers are now in jeopardy, Alliance for Change (AFC) MP Moses Nagamootoo has supported a call by their union for an inquiry and stated that a forensic audit should be launched into the billions of dollars injected into the failing industry.
Speaking at an AFC press conference on Thursday, Nagamootoo also said the call by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) for an inquiry could not be perceived as “politically-driven” because the union shared close ties with the ruling PPP/C, with an MP of the party at its helm.
In the November/ December, 2014 edition of its newspaper Combat, GAWU urged a commission of inquiry into the sugar industry, while criticising GuySuCo over last year’s “disappointing” performance, including the cost of producing sugar, the harvesting of young canes during the second crop and failing to negotiate a better sales deal with Tate and Lyle. GAWU further said a comprehensive inquiry is “long overdue” into the operations of the sugar industry and must not be delayed further if the industry “is to be saved from collapse.”
According to Nagamootoo, an inquiry into the sugar industry should have been conducted years ago, when it was observed that US$200M spent on the Skeldon Factory was not showing results.
“We felt long before that a rescue plan had to have been announced and all we got was false hopes that production would have been better,” Nagamootoo said.
He further expressed satisfaction at GAWU’s recognition that the industry’s crisis was a serious one.
Furthermore, he said, a full investigation should be launched into all monies given to the Guyana government from the European Union for the sugar industry. He added a call for a forensic audit into the billions of dollars that went into the Skeldon Factory and also the $17B that was given by Parliament as a bailout for “the cash-strapped” industry.
According to Nagamootoo, just within the last year GuySuCo had made a number of errors, including prematurely cutting crop. He added that the harvesting of young canes could place this year’s crop in jeopardy.
Analysts have said that young canes are being reaped because GuySuCo has not had a rigorous replanting exercise in recent years and so there aren’t enough mature canes in the fields.
However, despite the early harvest, GuySuCo was still producing at an all-time low and its errors could affect the lives of thousands of sugar workers, Nagamootoo said. GuySuCo’s 2014 production of just over 216,000 tonnes was the second lowest in over two decades. Further, it was 3,000 tonnes below GuySuCo’s set target.
“Months ago, when Dr. Clive Thomas [renowned economist]… said that the sugar industry reached a point of no return… he was dismissed as being one of the Doomsday advocates. But we know now that what is happening in the sugar industry has placed in jeopardy the 16,000 sugar workers’ lives and those of their families and so today we are seeing a return to the days of bitter sugar,” Nagamootoo said.
The industry has encountered a series of problems over the last decade, including the burden of the Skeldon factory, the revamping of the European Union sugar market and the slide in prices, poor field husbandry and declining labour pools.
Successive turnaround blueprints by GuySuCo have failed to reverse the deteriorating performance and the high debt. Sugar production was meant to be averaging between 350,000 and 400,000 tonnes at this juncture. However, it is nowhere near this and 2013 saw dismal production of 186,000 tonnes and the lowest ever first crop tally in the industry’s history.
