Dear Editor,
After working for 38 years at GuySuCo, in both field and factory, and now retired, it pains me to see the state of the estates that were closed down by the previous government. It grieves me to see the condition of the field cultivation where drainage and irrigation canals are so completely blocked by vegetation that one can walk across without going down. Field machinery and equipment were allowed to rot and the cane beds so covered with weeds and bushes that they look like a jungle.
Editor, it is criminal what the previous administration has done to GuySuCo, especially the closed estates. Who give Granger, Nagamootoo, Ramjattan, and their government, the power to close down and destroy GuySuCo without the permission of the people, and put 7,000 workers and their families on the breadline, when even their own commission of enquiry did not recommend closure, but privatisation? How can these people be so callous to destroy the lives of thousands of Guyanese, while they enjoy the good life? If they had followed the recommendation of their own commission of enquiry and privatised the company, today GuySuCo would have been a thriving, vibrant and profitable industry, and the workers and their families enjoying a higher standard of living. Of course they had to privatise while the company was a going concern and all the factories were grinding.
Anyway, before closing, a word of caution to the new government. While it is commendable that there are plans to reopen Skeldon, Rose Hall, and East Demerara estates, there are a few things that you need to look at; 1) the amount of money you will need to expend to get all three estates viable again. I saw in the budget an allocation of $3 billion. That’s chicken feed! It will take a huge amount to bring back those three estates. 2) The quality of personnel from top to bottom to manage those estates. We all know over the years the cry about the low level of wages and salaries at GuySuCo and if you do not pay competitive wages and salaries, you will not attract the brightest and the best and you will have to settle for the mediocre, which will not be good for the company. The young people must not see GuySuCo as a stepping stone to greater heights, but a company where they could work until they reach pensionable age. In other words, they must see a future in Guysuco. 3) Finally, the government must ensure that corruption and fraud are weeded out in GuySuCo. That has been a bugbear since nationalisation in 1976. Those of us who worked there can attest to the pervasive corruption and fraud that have been among the many reasons why GuySuCo has not been profitable over the years. And that is why, as soon as those three estates are up and running, government should take the decision to privatise the entire industry.
Yours faithfully
Imtiaz Baccus
