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Guysuco COI consultants paid $16.9M per month
Following demands made by People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Member of Parliament Dharamkumar Seeraj for a disclosure of how much the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into Guyana Sugar Corporation (Guysuco) is costing taxpayers, the Government has released the total cost breakdown.
According to the figures detailing how the $52M was used, $17.3M was utilized in July, $17.4M in August and for the month of September $17.3M has been allocated. For the consultants associated with the COI, in excess of $16.9M was provisioned for their services.
GUYSUCO COMMISSION OF INQUIRY JULY 1 to SEPTEMBER 28, 2015 (90 Days)
The Commission members are: Mr. Vibert Parvatan (Chairman), Prof. Clive Thomas (Financial and Economic Analysis), Dr. Harold Davis and Mr. John Piggott (Agronomists), Mr. John Dow and Mr. Joseph Alfred (Factory Operations), Mr. George James (Sugar Processing), Mr. Nowrang Persaud (Industrial Relations), Mr. Claude Housty (Marketing), Mr. Seepaul Narine, GAWU Representative and Mr. Omadatt Chandan who will serve as the Commission’s Secretary.
The eleven-member Commission is expected to develop a 15-year plan to bring the industry back to profitability.
Some of the work which was carried out by the Commission includes investigating the current state of cane cultivation, factory operations, production and marketing of sugar, molasses and other by-products. Special emphasis has also be placed on human resources, research and development, diversification of the industry, community obligations, weather events, marketing, finance, procurement, factory performance and management.
The world price for sugar stands at approximately US$0.11 per pound, while Guyana’s cost of production is approximately US$0.40 per pound. In addition to the failure of the Skeldon factory and the industry’s below par production, the previous Government has plugged Billions into GUYSUCO over the preceding years.
This Government, in the laying of budget 2015, allocated some $12B to the sugar industry. That was allocated after the Commission of Inquiry into the sugar corporation had already commenced, with its mandate to chart a course for the industry for the period spanning 2016- 2030. It is expected that the Commission’s findings will be ready by September of 2015.
The placement of the industry into private hands has also been subject to debate, as GUYSUCO has continuously been granted massive subsidies. Government’s advisor on sustainable development, Dr. Clive Thomas, has repeatedly called for downsizing of the industry and the need to privatize it. He currently sits on GUYSUCO’s Commission of Inquiry.
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