Dear Editor,
In the Stabroek News, it was reported that a senior GuySuCo official met with some five interested bidders and had discussion on a project to plant canes at Skeldon. I rang GuySuCo and asked what the project at Skeldon was all about since there is no factory there to crush cane. I was told the officials at the Ministry of Agriculture, at very high levels, instructed GuySuCo’s Board to prepare and plant 1,500 hectares of land at Skeldon. So, I asked where is the cane going to be crushed? I was told that the plan is to transport and crush it at Albion, some 30 miles away. This is a special situation since the last time GuySuCo did this, around 2014, the records will show that it cost the people of Guyana some $29 million per day, in losses, to transport this cane with heavy spillage on the roadways, a major traffic hazard in the Corentyne, and the rapid deterioration in the canes leading to TCTS of over 25 at that time (meaning a wasting of the cane at great loss to the Corporation in 2014).
I asked a senior field’s man at one of the Berbice estates about the processes in 2023 to prepare beds friendly to mechanized harvesting and its cost. He told me land was cleared, graded and flattened. The Dutch Bed (small beds) was then used to create new Broad Beds to facilitate the mechanized operations and plant. He said the private contractors charged $1 million per hectare to complete these four processes on the Berbice Estates. I asked if GuySuCo was to do these four operations, how much would it cost and he said about $900,000 per hectare. That means the profit was $100,000 per hectare for the private man and in my opinion the 2023 prices were reasonable. The private man made 10% -15% profit.
The process at Skeldon include clearing the land, then ploughing and planting the land since these beds are already Broad Beds ready for mechanized operations. Editor, the operations – at Albion, Rose Hall, Blairmont and Uitvlugt in 2023 cost $1 million (for four major operations) therefore it should not cost more than half a million to do two operations at Skeldon. The NPTAB data shows AJM Enterprises, the perceived selected candidate, charging the taxpayers of Guyana some $2.1 billion to clear, tilling and plant 1,500 hectares of land (the math’s tells me it is $1.4 million per hectare to do this task).
Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo keeps saying every week, at his press conference, ‘show me the evidence of corruption in Government.’ Well can someone please direct Dr. Jagdeo to GuySuCo.
Sincerely,
Leroy Charles