-following complaints of language barrier
Complaints from the staff of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) about the language barrier between them and the Cuban experts here to help resuscitate the industry will be addressed and they will be given interpreters, GuySuCo Chairman Paul Cheong has assured.
The Sunday Stabroek was informed, on the condition of anonymity, that the Cuban workers have to use the Google Translate feature on their cellphones and it is frustrating them and the local workers. They are asking for an interpreter to be assigned to each of the four estates that they have been attached to.
When contacted about the issue, GuySuCo’s new chairman told this newspaper that he was on his way to meet with the affected staff members. Following the meeting, he said that the issue was addressed and they will be assigned interpreters.
A source told this newspaper that government “was under the impression that they were bilingual so there would not have been a problem.”
Earlier this month, an industry source had explained that a number of Cuban experts were coming to provide assistance to the sugar industry. This newspaper understands their contract is for one year and they will be paid around US$5,000 per month, a fraction of what other experts had quoted.
There was no announcement that the team had arrived and had already begun working.
Industry sources had informed that the Cuban team would include factory engineers, field experts, and technicians.
Guyana has been scouting for assistance for GuySuCo from a number of countries including India and Guatemala, to address a variety of problems.
On April 16, President Irfaan Ali stated, “We have been working aggressively at modernizing GuySuCo. What we are doing is bringing a new structure. The current CEO will move into a new capacity, and we have a team that is coming,” the president said.
Additionally, he disclosed that the government is recruiting specialists from various countries, including India and Cuba, to enhance GuySuCo’s operations.
“We have to address factory, agriculture, human resources, and the supply of labour. We are now in the process of bringing all of this together because sugar must be viable, and we are making the investment to make sugar viable again,” he declared.
Ali’s statement came on the heels of the announcement of the departure of GuySuCo Chief Executive Officer, Sasenarine Singh, who is taking up the position of Ambassador to the European Union. That move raised questions about the direction that the industry would take as Singh had been hired with a mandate to turn the industry around.
The industry remains in difficult circumstances and the government has been accused of sinking money into it without any overarching plan. Questions have been raised on the current average cost of production for a pound of sugar in the industry.
Almost four years after the PPP/C promised in its manifesto to reopen three estates, only Rose Hall has been reopened and it is unclear what the future holds for the Skeldon and East Demerara estates.
