Dear Editor,
In December 1975, Booker’s made me manager of their factory and estate at Versailles, West Bank Demerara. Yes, my family had land at Versailles, but the factory was owned by Booker’s. Many cane farmers took their canes to the Versailles factory. At that time, my father, Joe Vieira, was a director at Booker’s and in fact he was their Mechanical Field Operations Director for more than 20 years. Joe was also director of the Guyana State Corporation [GUYSTAC], so Forbes Burnham depended on him for advice on the sugar industry. What I am going to disclose today is firsthand knowledge of the nationalization of Booker’s in 1976 and why Forbes Burnham did it.
Sometime in 1974, Mr. Burnham informed my father that Booker’s was committing some very strange practices i.e. they were the owners of Fletcher and Stewart, a well-known parts’ manufacturer, and it came to Forbes’ attention that along with other enterprises owned by Booker’s, [all parts of the Booker’s conglomerate bought what it needed almost exclusively from itself] were charging Guyana more for factory parts and other things than what they were charging other people for. For those who do not know, Booker’s was the largest privately owned conglomerate in this country for almost a century, which, according to Lord Jock Campbell, their chairman at the time, they owned ships, shops and sugar estates. Booker’s was a British company which straddled Guyana like a colossus, very much like what Exxon is seeking to do today.
Unlike GuySuCo and other major government businesses in Guyana which contracts out everything to facilitate corruption in the contract awarding system, Booker’s owned and controlled everything they needed to operate the sugar enterprises, they had absolutely no contractors, they imported their own fertilizer, chemicals and other raw materials in their own ships and took out the sugar in them. They owned the agency in Guyana for international harvester agricultural machinery, they owned the Booker’s Universal Building where they sold everything from a spanner to a shirt, they were the agents in Guyana for British Leyland and also the agents for Land Rover, Morris, Wolseley even Jaguar.
Understanding what this integration did to efficiency, I look around me in total disbelief at what is happening in Guyana today with everything the government is building and contracting out. As far as I can determine, Exxon owns not even one square inch of land or property in Guyana. Everything they do is contracted out, so when Exxon decides to leave Guyana, there will not be one square inch of fixed assets which we can seize in case they don’t keep their guarantees to us. It is my opinion that this is a very serious carpetbagger practice. Especially since everything they spend on any infrastructure is deductible as expenses.
But back to the Booker’s situation, my father was dead against nationalizing Booker’s, since notwithstanding everything, his opinion was that they were very efficient producers of sugar, and he was right as I have shown in a previous letter, since just about 10 years after nationalization, the Guyana sugar exports dropped from almost 300,000 tonnes per year to about half that amount, but Forbes was intent on showing them who was boss and so he decided not to nationalize them, but to instead impose a sugar levy which he announced in his new year message in 1974. The levy was so onerous, that in very short order, Booker’s executives met him sometime in 1975 and informed him that with such an onerous levy they were not in an economical position to continue.
Apparently, that was exactly what Forbes wanted, so he allegedly asked them how much compensation they wanted for the entire company. And that was the end of Booker’s. I wish to say here that at least he offered to pay them compensation, when in fact, in the parliament, Dr. Jagan was not in favour of paying any compensation. This is a sovereign nation, Editor, with a parliament which makes the law, I advise Exxon to remember that. If attracting foreign investment means that we have to prostitute out the country and allow the pillage of our resources then we must not allow it. I want to end by presenting Sir Jock Campbell’s entire statement since the 1970’s “People [of Guyana] are more important than ships, shops, and sugar estates” and I may add Exxon!
Sincerely,
Tony Vieira
