Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha on Saturday acknowledged that the recently reopened Rose Hall factory has experienced problems but he is optimistic that it will attain fully capacity.
He made the remarks on the sidelines of the commissioning of a model farm at Fort Wellington, the Department of Public Information (DPI) said.
Mustapha’s remarks followed statements by shadow minister of agriculture Vinceroy Jordan that the recently reopened factory was experiencing major problems.
“We have seen a number of punts of canes being crushed at Rose Hall. To date, they have produced just over 130 tonnes of sugar,” Mustapha said on Saturday, according to DPI.
He said that he was optimistic that the factory will continue to grind and crush sugar cane despite some mechanical concerns, which are being fixed as they occur.
“Many parts in the factory now, we are seeing problems with and as it comes up, we are trying to rectify it. As a matter of fact, the steam problem in terms of the boiler, we are getting leaks and so forth. So, we have to continue to look at those…That is why we have not started the full commissioning yet. In another couple of days, I am hoping that they can get everything correct and the factory can go to its full capacity,” the agriculture minister said, according to DPI.
The agriculture minister added that sugar cane workers from Albion are assisting with the harvesting of cane at Rose Hall sugar estate.
“As usual, at Blairmont, Albion, and Rose Hall, whenever you have excessive cane, you use cutters from other estates to cut the cane. But they will be entitled to certain payments and those payments are being executed…and you have harvesters who were employed at Rose Hall are cutting the canes too,” the agriculture minister noted.
Jordan in a statement asked the Minister: “were you not aware of all the major defects and possible new defects arising from the age of the factory component? Was there a detailed rehabilitation plan? Did the contractors/workers and management not investigate and understand all the engineering requirements?”
How now after spending billions to put a factory into operation it suffers major downtime because of these problems, Jordan queried.
The Shadow Agriculture Minister charged that there are issues plaguing the now-rehabilitated Rose Hall Sugar Factory like the #2 and #3 boilers at the factory leaking at various points, mechanical failures are many across the factory in addition to the boilers losing steam very often. There are so many stoppages in grinding to the point that now there is a complete temporary shutdown, with major leakages on steam pipes and centrifugal baskets.
He also posited that the workforce is under tremendous pressure stemming from an inexperienced personnel and shortages of technical and field workers.
“Again, I say the blame game is just laughable. Rather, what the minister should focus on is the gross incompetence of his government in managing GuySuCo and its failure to successfully reopen the Rose Hall Estate Factory and put it into production after spending billions of taxpayers’ dollars and promising the Guyanese people that it will be back in production,” the opposition member said.
He also charged that the Rose Hall Estate Factory has failed to produce any sugar whether for local or international consumption. He argued that what was produced is low-grade crystalised syrup or small crystal-like grains which were returned to the boilers to be mixed for fresh processing with the hope of producing high-grade or cured sugar ready for baggage or packaging at the factory.
“Like any other person with knowledge of sugar production and how the factories declare a target or production quantity, the Minister should know whether the expected sugar reaches grade A quality or not, it is declared as production, even if it must be reprocessed to satisfy the ISO 9001-2001 qualification. As such, let me emphasise that the Rose Hall Estate did not cure or produce any sugar whether for baggage, local, or commercial purposes. What it produced was uncommercial low-grade crystalized syrup or small crystal-like grains”, Jordan declared.
Jordan in the statement urged Guyanese to not accept that after spending billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money it is okay for us to sit back and accept government’s incompetence.
“Given two weeks of operation, what is the cost of both factory and field operation in producing just over 100 tons of sugar with a target set at 450 metric tonnes [MT] per week, then after an anticipated 900 MT of sugar the minister boasts about producing 130 tons?” he asked.
On this note the Shadow Agriculture Minister challenged the Minister of Agriculture and GuySuCo to make full public disclosure of sugar production and operation costs thus far at the Rose Hall Sugar Factory.
According to Jordan, Guyanese must hold the PPP/C administration accountable for the actions taken at GuySuCo at the expense of billions of taxpayers’ dollars.
On October 1, this newspaper reported that Mustapha debunked a claim that sugar had not been produced. He said that approximately 100 tonnes had been churned out between September 24 and Septembers 28.
This disclosure stemmed from Jordan’s challenge last week for Mustapha, and GuySuCo to release the production amount and costs so far for the Rose Hall Estate which officially returned to grinding on Sunday September 24 amid claims that sugar was not produced at the location since its reopening.
