Dear Editor,
On April 3, 2024, under advisement from GuySuCo’s Board of Directors, Madanlal Ramraj with the head of the Board’s Finance Sub-Committee, Ms. Shaleeza Shaw, and Head of the Board’s Operations Committee, Mr. Aslim Singh (from the union GAWU), advised His Excellency the President into announcing that GuySuCo will produce 100,000 metric tonnes of sugar for 2024. Did any of these people consult with the Estate Managers or the Agriculture Director, Mr. Vishnu Panday, before making this clueless declaration to His Excellency?
GuySuCo produced some 7,000 metric tonnes of sugar in the first half of 2024, which means these Board Members are suggesting that 93,000 metric tonnes of sugar needs to be produced in the second crop of 2024 (only 12 weeks left). As an old timer, in my days 20 years ago, the second crop usually started around mid-July 2024. However, my friends at Rose Hall Estate told me that none of the factories are in a state of readiness and none of them are in a position to start before August 15, 2024.
In the case of the Albion factory project, because of the poor oversight of the factory operations’ leadership at head office (with the Factory Director proceeding on annual leave during this critical maintenance period directly affecting the progress on the repair project), this high level of executive delinquency has resulted, I am told by sources close to the company, in these factories not starting today. We are reading in the newspapers that GuySuCo approached the Parliament on July 31, 2024 for almost 10 billion dollars, where is Member of Parliament Vinceroy Jordan from the PNC?
Never in the history of the sugar industry of 300 years was a request for cash during the mid-year reach to this level and it exposes that something is seriously wrong in the sugar industry. It causes one to wonder, is Mr. Jordon from the PNC now on the payroll of the Ministry of Agriculture, thus his silence? There are major repercussions for this executive incompetence in the factory leadership. GuySuCo will not surpass the sugar production for 2023, which was 60,000 metric tonnes of sugar with the cost of production of sugar now set to be more than US$1.23 per pound of sugar for 2024, while the revenue earned from that same pound of sugar not expected to be more than US$0.36.
The compounded loss from this situation is US$0.87 per pound, thus the need for this 10 billion dollars being taken from the taxpayers. Is anyone in Guyana looking into the waste and incompetence at GuySuCo from the Board and Executive Management at Head Office? Could we not have paid the teachers some of that 10 billion dollars? How much money has GuySuCo pulled out of the Ministry of Finance since the last crop ended? A trusted source in the company advised that the annual wage bill is $12 billion and that $2.5 billion has been extracted from the Ministry of Finance since the crop closed and another $1.5 billion will be needed to take the industry to the start of the crop in August 2024. That is $4 billion, so why is $10 billion being harvested from the Ministry of Finance? To fund the massive corrupt contracts in that Corporation with a major jumbo contractor?
I was told by senior staff that the Agriculture Director, Mr. Vishnu Panday, is ready to harvest the canes but the factories are not ready to receive these canes and it exposes the gross level of incompetence in the factory operations. But what has the Board of Directors done during this entire tragic episode, are they sleeping on the job? Of late they are only attacking Mr. Panday unfairly, who seems to be the only person who knows what he is doing in the sugar industry. But sugar cannot be produced without working factories and none of the factories are working right now. It is time for this entire Board to be fired. But the worse news of it all is Albion, which is the largest estate and for us old timers, we know that when Albion gets a fever, the whole industry will get a cold. The Albion factory has not produced a pound of sugar this year, but the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Mustapha seems to be in a deep sleep on this matter also.
Is there a future for GuySuCo under this current and incompetent board headed by Mr. Mandalal Ramraj? And where is Mr. Paul Cheong in all of this mess? He has been on the job long enough to have an idea how to better manage this situation. What is he doing to help the Estate Managers start the crop? Is it because he is distracted because he is holding three jobs at the same time – his private contracting business, a senior executive role at the Beharry Group of Companies and the CEO of the largest company in Guyana – GuySuCo? And I am told the Minister of Agriculture seems to be aware of this conflict of interest situation. Does Vice President Jagdeo knows about this conflict of interest situation?
Why is the Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, not addressing this conflict of interest situation with the same energy he has for Mr. Nigel Hughes? But more importantly, why is the PNC asleep on this issue where billions of taxpayers’ money are being squandered at GuySuCo?
Sincerely
John London
