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Cabinet faces dilemma over new GuySuCo board
The Cabinet’s approval
The Cabinet of Ministers is facing a dilemma with the appointment of directors for the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
On February 22, 2018, the Cabinet approved an 11-member board with financial expert, Colvin Heath-London as Chairman.
Heath-London is the current head, also, of the Special Purpose Unit (SPU), which falls under the state-owned National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL). SPU, formed last year, is tasked with overseeing the privatization and divestment of four closed estates of GuySuCo- Skeldon, Rose Hall, Enmore and Wales.
SPU is also tasked with working along with GuySuCo. The presence of Heath-London, Government officials said, was to ensure the direction of GuySuCo and the four estates without hitch and would see shared “synergies”.
The official has wide experience in sugar and other multi-billion-dollar business projects in the region and was instrumental in putting together the US$150M Timehri airport project which is currently ongoing.
However, the appointment of the GuySuCo directors has met with some objections from reportedly the Alliance For Change (AFC) faction of Government who wants the former GuySuCo chairman, Professor Clive Thomas, to have a role.
On Friday, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, disclosed that Cabinet has made some comments with respect to the board that was identified.
“And I am sure that within a short space of time that all of the issues will be clarified and there will be a full board of GuySuCo appointed, Gazetted and working.”
On Tuesday, Kaieteur News was told, NICIL officials, including Heath-London, are expected to appear before the Cabinet of Ministers to answer some of those questions raised by the AFC faction.
In addition to Heath-London as Chairman, the Cabinet had approved, according to a document, as other members, Komal Singh; Verna Adrian; Fritz McLean; Rosh Khan (jr); George Jervis; Arianne McLean; Vishnu Panday; Annette Arjoon-Martins and two executives from GuySuCo.
The dilemma that the Cabinet faces lies in that fact that NICIL and SPU have both reportedly started working with GuySuCo, with a number of restructuring and changes made.
Already, the role of the current acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Paul Bhim, has been reduced. He is no longer in charge of finance.
The Human Resources Manager, Earl John, has reportedly also been sent home.
NICIL, at the end of last year, took over GuySuCo and with SPU, control seven estates, including the four closed ones.
This was after the government shares of GuySuCo were transferred to NICIL.
To pull back the Cabinet’s decision made on February 22, would be an admission that an error was made, a Government official conceded.
Appointed to Chairman of GuySuCo or NOT? – Colvin Heath-London
He refused to discuss the matter further nothing that Cabinet’s agenda are confidential.
The administration was upset after GuySuCo and its previous board took the decision to issue more than 4,000 workers, from Skeldon, Rose Hall and Enmore, with redundancy letters, shutting the estates.
Cabinet was not informed of the moves, Harmon admitted to media questions.
At the end of last year, the CEO, Errol Hanoman, was let loose after his contract ended.
The Coalition Government has been pushing for a smaller sized GuySuCo after massive losses in the last decade.
However, the Opposition, whose power base are sugar workers, are heavily against the sacking of workers.
SPU has made it clear that it would be better to reopen the closed estates to attract more from investors as the properties would be considered “going concerns”.
GuySuCo is currently broke with Heath-London and the Ministry of Finance looking to borrow more than $10B for operations.
With regards to Enmore, Rose Hall and Skeldon, SPU is looking to reopen to harvest canes on the ground. Workers from the respective estates are being rehired with canes expected to produce molasses.
The Demerara Distillers Limited, which wants the molasses for its rums, has offered to run the Enmore estate until SPU decides how much it will be sold for.
SPU has hired PriceWaterhouseCooper to evaluate the four closed estates. The process will chart the way forward for divestment and privatization which is expected to be completed by the third quarter.
GuySuCo would be hoping to raise enough monies from the privatization process to run its operations.
The target of sugar for this year is just over 100,000 tonnes.
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