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Special body to oversee GuySuCo’s privatization hiring staffers
A special body that will oversee the privatization and divestment of the Guyana Sugar
The Skeldon factory, East Berbice.
Corporation (GuySuCo) is making strides in being established to start work.
The special purpose unit, which will fall under the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), will be focusing on estates and factories that have been earmarked by the Coalition Government for action, according to an advertisement published in Kaieteur News yesterday.
Among other things, the unit is looking for a Public Relations and Community Development Officer; Finance/Administrative Officers, assistants and cleaners.
Government had announced the formation of the unit earlier this year, after widespread consultations and discussions on sugar’s future in the last two years.
In May, a white paper on the industry was tabled in the National Assembly by the Government.
According to Agriculture Minister, Noel Holder, preparation of the government’s position on the future of the sugar industry was a long and intense process.
Government has made it clear that while sugar will remain, to be profitable, the estates and factories will have to be leaner, cutting losses and being more efficient.
It was proposed that several estates be amalgamated. Wales’ operations have already been merged with the Uitvlugt Estate, and Albion will be joined with Rose Hall.
Government has also announced that it is hoping for offers on Skeldon, the newest factory in the country, which has been proving a major headache because of technical issues.
At the end of the process, the administration said that the sugar industry will consist of three estates and factories.
The estates, complete with factories, would be Blairmont in the West Bank Berbice, Albion -Rose Hall in East Berbice and the Uitvlugt-Wales estate in West Demerara.
Additionally, sugar production will be contracted. Minister Holder had noted. “The Government proposes that sugar production should be contracted to approximately 147,000 tonnes annually, produced from Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt Estates.”
This production, Government says, would be enough to satisfy the domestic and foreign markets that provide preferential access to Guyana’s sugar.
Minister Holder had also asserted that the industry will retain as many workers as needed for all operations on the merged estates and factories.
With regard to the Skeldon factory, there has been intense interest in the facilities.
Built and modernized in 2009, under the Bharrat Jagdeo government, via a combination of loans and GuySuCo monies, the new estate was supposed to have rescued the failing industry with its updated technology and more lands that were opened. However, Skeldon failed to get off the ground, with one major issue after the next.
GuySuCo was forced to shell out millions of dollars annually for repairs. Even Skeldon’s co-generation plant, using a mix of oil and bagasse, has failed to perform optimally.
This year, the situation got worse for Skeldon, after GuySuCo was forced to take the factory out of operations for the entire first crop. This was because of unsafe boiler operations that demanded urgent repairs.
There have been a few expressions of interest in Skeldon, with Berbice-based Karibee rice producers, Nand Persaud and Company Limited, joining UK-based Tate and Lyle and the East Berbice Development Association, which comprise businessmen and farmers, filing notices with GuySuCo.
While the unions are not totally against divestment and privatization, they are insisting that the administration explore local investors. In recent years, consecutive governments have been plugging billions of dollars to keep GuySuCo afloat, with workers drifting to greener grounds, like construction and mining.
The Skeldon project alone, Holder had disclosed, has indebted Guyana to the tune of $29B.
The state enterprise has been plagued with challenges to maintain production over the years. Production fell by 18.7 percent in 2016, and foreign exchange earned by the crop declined 15 percent. This poor performance followed a pattern of inconsistent output in which the average annual output of sugar declined by 14 percent between 2006 and 2015.
GuySuCo had debts of more than $82 billion by 2015. Since 2015, Government subsidies to GuySuCo were estimated to be $32B.
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