Latest update January 18th, 2025 7:00 AM
Gov’t pledges Commission of Inquiry into sugar industry
In the face of a perilous sugar industry, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo vowed that a Commission of Inquiry will be launched to fix the sugar industry.
Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo
He said this at the 67th Enmore Martyrs commemorative ceremony in Enmore, East Coast Demerara on Tuesday.
Recently, Guyana’s sugar industry was in a state of uncertainty; it was revealed that the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) only had one week’s pay remaining for its employees.
As the company was “poised on bankruptcy”, Prime Minister Nagamootoo expressed his disbelief at the state of Guyana’s main export industry.
“I could not believe that our former leaders hid that fact, that they had bankrupted the sugar industry and had placed the lives of 16,000 sugar workers at risk,” said the Prime Minister.
He said that GUYSUCO has greatly mismanaged its employees’ salaries over the year, which has amounted to the current state the industry faces.
He related that even if the sugar factories were to close there would be nothing for sugar workers, since the company had not paid its employees monies deducted for National Insurance Scheme (NIS); this amounts to $1.2B.
The Prime Minister recounted that despite deductions of up to $252M pay in credit unions, workers did not receive the money they were promised.
According to the Prime Minister, part of the administration’s reason for firing GUYSUCO’s Board of Directors had to do with the secrecy in which money was managed.
“We (the former Opposition) gave $17B from Parliament to build the industry… We asked how much of that was going to sugar workers and we were never given an answer. So we felt quite rightly that the Management and the Board should be fired,” said Prime Minister Nagamootoo.
He further condemned the former People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration for spending $47B on the updated Enmore Sugar Factory which has been producing sugar at a loss for a number of years. The past government had managed to turn the sugar industry “upside down”, said the Prime Minister.
To fix the industry’s mismanaged state; the government official said that his administration will launch a Commission of Inquiry into the affairs that led to the bankrupt sugar industry. He said that the inquiry will include “overseas” experts and that it will investigate multiple estates.
“The commission will not sit in an office. It will go to every estate and it will talk to the sugar workers and find out from (them) what can be done to save sugar,” related PM Nagamootoo. He added that his administration believes that workers are an important part of finding solutions to Guyana’s sugar industry.
The Prime Minister said that President David Granger was dealing with the issue of the “survival” of the sugar industry. He said that the President was working on a way to provide billions of dollars on a bailout plan for the industry.
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