State Minister Joseph Harmon yesterday officially announced that Cabinet recently granted its approval of a new Board of Directors for the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), which will be chaired by agriculture expert John Dow.
The appointment of Dow, John Browman, Richard Cumber-batch, Paul Cheong, Fitz Mc Lean, Vishnu Panday, Ramesh Persaud, Nowrang Persaud, Roy Hanoman, Claude Housty and ex-officio member Harold Davis Jr., who is the Corporation’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), comes months after the life of the previous board expired.
Harmon disclosed during a post-Cabinet press briefing that the names were submitted by Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder and Cabinet granted its approval after consideration.
The appointment of the Board will be for a period of two years. Its tenure will expire on August 31st, 2020.
Stabroek News reported two weeks ago that Cabinet had given its nod to the new board. When contacted prior to the publication of that report, Holder would only confirm that a Board has been identified but said he was not the one to announce the selections.
The life of the previous board came to an end on the last day of April. Government was to initiate the process to identify candidates to form a new one. There was confusion in March after it was advertised that Colvin Heath-London, who heads the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) overseeing the divestment of some of GuySuCo’s assets, was the new Chairman of the Board, with Komal Singh, Verna Adrian, Fritz McLean, Rosh Khan, George Jervis, Arianne McLean, Vishnu Panday, and Annette Arjoon as directors.
However, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan later clarified that then incumbent Chairman, Professor Clive Thomas, remained the board Chairman as Cabinet had deferred a decision on a replacement. Cabinet documents appointing Heath-London and a new board had been sent out without approval of the full Cabinet. As a result, the appointments were subsequently rescinded.
Holder indicated to this newspaper that GuySuCo has been operating without a Board for a long time and he noted his belief that with one now being put in place, the needed recapitalisation works would speed up and the positive turnaround for the sector that government has planned would be evident.
As a result, one of the first duties of “whomever the new Chairman is” will be to meet with Head of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) Horace James to discuss collaboration.
The Minister of Agriculture said that he understands that there has been a tussle between NICIL’s SPU and GuySuCo over a number of matters but the two sides have to first try to trash out any differences before his or any subsequent Cabinet intervention. “The heads of the two have to first meet and try to talk and resolve whatever differences. Only if they can’t come to an agreement then will I intervene and inform Cabinet,” he said
Holder was optimistic that the issues would be worked out soon. “Yes I do believe that they would resolve the matter. They have to,” he declared.
