The GuySuCo Board

Jun 26, 2013 Editorial

This newspaper, in the interest of publishing diverse views on issues confronting the nation, published the comments of an employee of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) who took umbrage at criticisms levelled at the management and Board of his corporation.
He opined, “After careful scrutiny of the direct “battering” on GuySuCo’s management – its Board in particular – I can most outrightly conclude that not only are these arguments grossly exaggerated, but they are blatantly questioning the capabilities of the management, which comes off as belittling and demoralising in most cases and scenarios that have arisen in our press.” (“GuySuCo’s Board facing the afflictions.” By Observer)
We agree with the writer on the historical and contemporary importance of the sugar industry to the nation and it is the reason for this editorial response. We believe, however, that it is this same concern that has driven most of the critics to make their intervention in the hope of saving the corporation. Obviously, there are some who may be using the opportunity to make political mileage from the travails of the industry, but that does not mean that their concerns are automatically to be dismissed.
The writer’s cherry-picked points are very revealing and tell their own story. He makes it appear that the “critics” of GuySuCo are all from the “outside”, with axes to grind. As an insider, he conveniently forgets that after years of falling production and massive subsidies, then President Jagdeo expressed great disgust at the performance of management, and threatened to intervene “personally”. By 2009, the Chairman of the Board was let go and the Board was reorganised under the chairmanship of Dr Nanda Gopal.
This new Board came up with a turnaround “blueprint” to emphasise the specificity of the measures that would revive the industry’s fortunes. Production of sugar, however, continued its inexorable decline, even as a new acting Chairman was appointed. A new administration was elected and after initial period of giving the new Board a chance, President Ramotar, who had been a member of the old Board, expressed great disappointment with the performance of management when speaking to the opening ceremony of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union’s 20th Delegates Conference, in August 2012.
He said that managers were “managing by cellphones” in reference to managers refusing to get into the fields. They all operated as if sugar was synthesised in factories. The new Chairman, Mr Raj Singh, disagreed with the president and defended his flying from his home in New Jersey to execute his duties. He claimed that since he was not an “Executive Chairman” he did not have to be present in Guyana, and it was presumably okay for him to communicate with his fellow board members and management through (long distance) cell phone calls.
It was most revealing that the GuySuCo “Observer” avoided the “Raj Singh issue” even though it has been the most contentious. The critics assert that in this period of crisis, when the industry stands a good chance of not even reaching the historically lowest production (1990 – 129,000 tonnes), the seriousness of the rescue efforts is trivialised by the patent unsuitability of the current chairman.
There is first of all his qualifications for the job. Raj Singh received a PhD from a long distance institution regarded as a “diploma mill” that soon became defunct. His “thesis” had nothing to do either with management or sugar production. In Guyana, he occupied a junior position in the personnel department of GuySuCo and in the US where he migrated, in the office of a New Jersey university.How does this give anyone confidence that Raj Singh can turn around this industry that affects 185,000 Guyanese as “Observer’ claims? Or that he deserved a salary of $2,500,000 annually plus perks such as housing and vehicles etc.
But the final proof that Observer needs a reality check is that the Minister of Agriculture has already announced that the Board needs a major overhaul. He would not have done this if he and the President had not concluded that the criticisms are not “exaggerated”.

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