Latest update January 14th, 2025 3:35 AM
Oct 08, 2017 News
A senior Berbice official says that his office has received credible information that figures
are being fudged at the Skeldon sugar estate.
According to Gobin Harbhajan, representative of the Prime Minister in Region Six (East Berbice), last week a number of staffers and others handed over images and videos of sugar cane juice being dumped, ultimately affecting the final production figures.
“If it is true, then this should be a highly worrying development for Skeldon and for all Guyana. Skeldon is the newest factory for the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and should be performing but it is the worst of the factories. We have been spending billions to fix problems and pay workers. Now this comes out.”
Skeldon, one of six factories run by the state-owned GuySuCo, did not grind for the first crop.
It has a target of 30,000 tonnes. Recent figures indicate that just over 2,000 tonnes had been produced.
Workers’ turnout at GuySuCo for the year average a miserly 60 percent, set the industry on path to one of the lowest production in years.
Harbhajan said that he immediately contacted the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and the matter will be handed to the relevant authorities.
“Sugar and rice is life for Berbice. If sugar cane juice is being dumped then it defies why we are planting cane, spraying fertilizers and paying millions in wages to grow it and nurture it to cutting stage. We are spending tens of millions more to bring it in punts to the factories.”
This latest disclosure would follow after a critical report surfaced last month from a South African-based engineer who claimed that he too stumbled on instances of juice dumping by some staffers.
Vishal Somai had been hired several times to help fix the problems with the Chinese-built Skeldon sugar factory.
The engineer said he had raised alarming questions about the operations there but there was little evidence anything was done by the management.
Somai was instrumental in recommending that Skeldon doesn’t grind for the first crop this year because of unsafe boiler conditions at that Berbice factory.
According to Harbhajan, one of the reasons for dumping of the juice was because some workers figured that if they don’t get the canes off the punts in time to the loaders onto the crushers, then the backdam would run out of punts.
“By not having punts, it means the grinding will have to stop. Workers are being paid per tonnage from the punts. So in essence, someone deliberately turned a blind eye or cook the books so that works can continue.”
The PM representative said that the indications are that the figures are being adjusted secretly at the Skeldon labs to compensate for the cane juice losses.
“This points to collusion and, frankly, I am surprised that no one else has been picking up the warning signs.”
Harbhajan said that he received complaints too that the Production Department of Skeldon allegedly covered the matter up by ordering a pit in which cane stalks were also dumped, to be covered with sand.
“Two 40-ton pits have been filled up in January 2107…one has reportedly been cleaned secretly because of investigation. This is what we are being told.”
Last December, the South African engineer had complained to the PM representative who asked him to submit a report. The matter was reported again, this time officially, to the management of GuySuCo.
Somai said it is a criminal activity. People elsewhere (including South Africa) are fired instantly for acts.
”This activity directly affects the production of sugar and therefore the revenue of the company (GuySuCo). Being state-owned, the effects are even more serious as it affects taxpayers negatively.
”To make matters worse, most of the figures in the lab report are crooked to make things “balance”.
This was confirmed by professional consultants, SKIL, who were hired by GuySuCo to perform an energy and mass balance of the Skeldon factory.
The alarming report of the engineer recommended that Government and GuySuCo seriously relook at the methods used to calculate wages and bonuses of cane-cutters and cane loading workers in both the field and the factory.
The Coalition government had ordered an inquiry into the state of the sugar industry and has even tabled a white paper in the National Assembly on the future of GuySuCo.
Billions of dollars annually is being plugged into GuySuCo to keep it alive. Despite failing fields and little cash, made worse by Skeldon, the Opposition has been appealing for the administration to hold off.
Almost US$200M was spent on the Skeldon factory and new lands, with the facilities opened a mere eight years ago.
Last year December, the century-old Wales, West Bank Demerara closed its gates. Rose Hall and Enmore have been recommended for closure too,
Skeldon has been slated for privatization with a number of interest expressed already, including to the rice miller powerhouse, Nand Persaud and Company, makers of the Karibe Rice and another from Tate and Lyle.
Recently, GuySuCo, facing prospects of no monies to pay workers, asked government for a bailout.
Government has released $2B in a housing land deal. However, that cash will soon run out.
The unions have been fighting tooth and nail against privatization despite evidence that workers were staying away or have drifted to greener pastures.
Jan 14, 2025
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