Youths and the working class are not spectators to the development of Guyana

Jan 06, 2016 News

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THE VOICE OF THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

By Sase Singh
Agriculture remains at the heart of Guyana’s people-centered development. The Agriculture Strategy for 2013-2020 clearly illustrated that in addition to the 4-Ps (pumpkin, pepper, pineapple and plantains), there was supposed to be a renewed focus on the 5-Cs (citrus, cassava, coconut, cocoa and cattle).
In that mix is coconut.  The grand strategy outlined for the coconut industry is to “re-engineer with a new orientation of value-added products”.  With some 24,000 hectares (60,000 acres) under coconut cultivation, there is enough evidence that the cultivated land is there.  However, production remains poor.
In 2013, Guyana produced some 23,000 coconuts compared to a production of 92,000 coconuts in 2010.  Of that 23,000 coconuts harvested, some 10,000 were processed and exported in various forms, bringing in revenue of US$3 million. This simple illustration reveals that Guyana has the potential to harvest over 100,000 coconuts and export various forms of value added products such as bottled coconut water, copra, copra meal and other by-products which can generate more than US$20 million of cash inflows for the economy.
In the 2015 Budget, the Minister of Finance outlined a vision to grow the non-traditional agriculture sector by 25 percent by 2020 and to increase agro-processing of these products by 50 percent.
Production of valued added coconut products will form an integral part of this strategy and the Hope Coconut Estate has a role to play.
But this will not be accomplished until and unless we get the operations at the Hope Coconut Estates right.  With the election of the new Government, a new Board chaired by one Iamei Aowmathi (the head of the BAKJA Movement, a place of alternative / herbal medicines) was appointed. The government through the Official Gazette appointed him non- Executive Chairman. The role of a non- Executive Chairman is very different from the CEO and this, I suspect, is the cause of the administrative frustration on the estate.
HOPE is a very small government Corporation, with revenue of around G$13 million logged in 2014 (inclusive of a government subvention of G$3 million). Hope Estates just contribute about 2 percent of revenue to the industry.
So why is a two percent company developing into a gross embarrassment for the APNU+AFC Government?
LACK OF BASIC CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT HOPE
The non-executive Chairman is not responsible for the day-to-day management of the company; rather he chairs the Board meeting, presents the agenda, and generally manages the board meeting.  I suspect in the absence of Hope Coconut Estate having a CEO, the non-executive Chairman in a most uninformed and illegal manner assumed the seat of CEO.
Until the Minister of Agriculture or Permanent Secretary issues a letter in writing appointing the non-executive Chairman as the Executive Chairman / Chief Executive Officer, he cannot function in that role.
I strongly suspect that since June 2015, there may have been some expenditure made in the name of the Corporation that are illegal and in clear violation of the mandate provided by the Public Corporation Act.  I am therefore calling on the Office of the Auditor General to conduct a special transactional audit on the books of this Corporation.
The Accountant must know that the Fraud Squad of the Police can also be called in by the Office of the Auditor General and, therefore, must understand that the non-Executive Chairman of the Hope Coconut Estate cannot instruct him or her to make payments since that is not in the legal mandate of a non-executive Chairman.  Only the head of operations at the Hope Coconut Estate can so instruct.
WHO IS HEADING THE OPERATIONS AT HOPE?
The law provides for the most senior paid full-time officer at HOPE to run the operations until a CEO is appointed.  That person shall lead the paid team and is responsible for the day-to-day management of the organization.  This person should be invited to the Board meeting as an ex-officio member.
So let us make this clear – the Board is responsible for policy, the Management is responsible for the day-to-day operations.
The Board Members are paid a stipend and should not have a fixed office space in the organization (they are compensated visitors); while the Management Team has fixed office space in the organization (they are paid full-time workers).
Therefore, the Minister of Agriculture has a responsibility and a duty to fix this MESS at HOPE COCONUT ESTATE; it reflects badly on him.  On one hand he has appointed an Administrative Manager to join the existing team (Accountant, Ranger and so on) to run the day-to-day affairs of the organization and on the other hand, he recommends the appointment of a Board to supervise policy.
It is clear someone in the organization has not gotten the Minister’s Memo or is acting on advisement contrary to the Minister’s instructions and challenging the Minister’s directions.  Is this a test case of the strength of the Coalition?
LASTLY BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY
It has been reported in the Guyana Chronicle that the Board issued a notice to the farmers who are working the leased lands at HOPE, informing them that the lease rates have increased from $2,000 per acre to $15,000 per acre.  That is an increase of some 650 percent.
Again, the Board makes policy; the paid management executes the policy.  It appears that this BOARD is judge, jury and executioner and seems to be drawing their assumed power from sources outside of the Ministry of Agriculture?  I would advise the farmers to reject this unauthorized imposition; they must take their protest to the Ministry of Agriculture and the news media since this is classic class oppression.
This increase has to be gazetted and until and unless it is gazette (meaning sanctioned by the Minister), it is an illegal increase.
This increase in rates illustrates a clear act of a class struggle against the petty-bourgeois who now dominate the ruling class.  Where are the fighters for the poor and the working class in this Government?
Is this what the 50.3 percent of the Guyanese population voted for, a continuation of class oppression?  Was this increase in the lease rates politically sanctioned?
How on earth can we ask these poor farmers to pay this hefty tax, most of whom occupy under five acres of land, but we cannot impose a functional Property Tax system on those who have huge amounts of land and property in Guyana?
Would the PPP do this to the farmers of HOPE Estate?
Guyanese are watching.  The more the Minister plays coy with this issue, the more it will engulf him. I am sensing much tactical cunningness is at play here as the petty bourgeois rulers take an eclectic position on these issues where the taxes on the poor agricultural class become oppressive and the wages increases for agricultural workers are all but paltry.
There is a method to the madness. And we thought Jagdeoism died in May 2015?  Pockets of it are alive and well today.  I trust President Granger will arrest these Jagdeoites in his Government; the sooner the better, before they destroy what he is trying to achieve.

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