Amid continuing problems in the sugar industry and subventions from the state, President Irfaan Ali yesterday warned around 180 officials of GuySuCo that there must be sweeping changes and that it can’t be business as usual.
“We are not investing all of these resources in GuySuCo for failure. The restructuring and strengthening of GuySuCo is not a joke. When we said we want to make this industry viable, it is not a mystery”, he told the officials gathered at State House, according to a statement from the Office of the President.
The meeting came a day after Stabroek News reported that the industry had fallen under its already low first-crop target.
The statement said that Ali invited the leadership of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) to State House to discuss its strategic direction with the intention of improving the corporation’s efficiency and effectiveness.
The statement said that the President instituted on-the-spot solutions aimed at improving communication, management and direction.
The President also emphasised that the corporation does not belong to any individual or group, but to the country.
“Success does not start with money,
success starts with the right attitude, success starts with teams, success starts with people and if we can’t get this fundamentally right, then we have no hope of being successful—absolutely no hope of being successful”, he said.
The President also said that it cannot be “business as usual anymore” and there must be sweeping changes.
The statement said that the President was told that there is a high turnover rate for field workers—which hinders efficiency. Though this is a challenge, the President said that it is also an opportunity to look towards mechanisation.
Both estate managers of Albion and Blairmont advised of plans to improve their mechanisation to 60% by 2026, through the increased usage of specialised tractors. The statement said that President Ali, however, contended that the time span for the completion of their target can be reduced by two years.
To this end, he tasked the Board of Directors and senior managers of the corporation to organise a sub-committee to undertake an analysis with the objective of implementation as soon as possible.
“I know the problem, I understand the problem and that is why we have to accelerate this mechanisation”, he declared.
The President also tasked the senior officials to have a weekly management meeting to improve communication and management. He noted that the Corporation will not advance if persons have conflicting visions.
“People depend on us, and I depend on you. At the end of the day, the buck stops at my Office. The same exercise conducted this morning at the senior level I want to be conducted at the estate level and junior staff level.”
The President also implored the senior officials to visit all of the estates and speak to the employees.
“I want all personality issues in this organisation to be stripped today”, he declared. He also challenged the managers to be humble in the execution of their duties.
“An organisation requires collective thinking and action”, he said.
Director-General of the Ministry of Agriculture, Madanlall Ramraj; Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Delma Nedd and Director of Projects at the Office of the President, Marcia Nadir-Sharma, were also at the meeting, the statement said.
On Monday, Stabroek News reported that from a first crop production target of 20,261, metric tonnes, the corporation has only managed to produce 13,076 metric tonnes of sugar. The bulk of the production came from the grinding estates in Berbice as the Uitvlugt estate on the West Demerara experienced mechanical issues. From a target of 4,295 metric tonnes only 66 metric tonnes were produced at Uitvlugt.
Neither of the other two estates was able to meet its quota despite surpassing weekly targets two times during the crop.
The Albion Estate fell short by 1,590 tonnes and only produced 7,488 from a target of 9078 whereas the Blairmont Estate produced 5,521 tonnes from a target of 6,887 tonnes, a shortfall by 1,376. The industry has fallen short of its production target by 7,185 tonnes. In 2021 the corporation produced 29,650 tonnes of sugar in the first crop.
Subsequent to the floods last year, GuySuCo revised its target to 66,000 tonnes of sugar for this production year. This figure is a sharp drop from the 2021 target of 97,420 tonnes and the revised figure of 70,000 tonnes.
For the second crop this year, the corporation has set a target of 45,000 tonnes of sugar.
The poor production also highlights the dilemma the government faces after having promised in its 2020 manifesto to reopen three estates that had been shuttered under the APNU+AFC government. Rose Hall is the closest to being reopened. Industry sources say there is virtually no hope for any reopening of the Skeldon and East Demerara estates.
