Incompetence, Inside Trading and Corruption within GuySuCo

May 21, 2018 Letters

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Dear Editor,
More often than not, the dilemma of Corporate Politics has wreaked havoc on good governance of many majestic companies that eventually led to their collapse.
Invariably, such happenings affect the lives of many and their investments, whether it be time or money, are largely wasted. Those affected, bear the brunt of poor decision-making by those put in place to do otherwise. The problem is, when this happens, there is a domino effect and turmoil prevails.
Nonetheless, if the issues surrounding the demise of any Corporation or Institution, are largely based on incompetence, then those responsible should be made to answer. The question, though, is how does one prosecute incompetence?
This is not an easy task and invariably, those that put them to manage the process in the first instance, can never be truly comfortable with investigating their select personnel. Such is the state of affairs surrounding the current Management of GuySuCo.
The KN editions of last week spoke of another twist to the bizarre tale of Management of the Company and we are now apprised of another dimension that is scandalous to say the least. What has come to light is Inside Trading allegedly conducted by a very Senior Executive as recent as April 2018 where the price of sugar was arbitrarily dropped and not in keeping with the procedures adopted to ensure transparency.
The result of that alleged act of malfeasance, has hedged the price per tonne sugar to the benefit of the overseas client until June 2018 and to the disadvantage of the company. This act has also led to reduced income as regards foreign exchange, so critical to the coffers of our country.
As if that were not enough, there is also the alleged favouring of local buyers and here the reference is made to the West Demerara businessmen who were given preference where quantities of domestic sugar is concerned, again at the expense of transparency.
The Senior Executive is again brought into question where his affiliation with these individuals is concerned. It is rather coincidental that they all reside on that side of the Demerara River, two in very close proximity to said Senior Executive and the other, not too geographically displaced.
It is very disheartening that an allegation made in the published articles speaks to the conflict surrounding an investigation conducted by the Auditors as to the non-existence of a bond for storage of sugar by one of the preferred parties and which refuted the claim that it did exist by none other than the Security Manager.
But then again, that manager is allowed to conduct his own business, albeit non-sugar related while in the employ of GuySuCo, a blatant conflict of interest.
Senior Managers are not allowed to have any other form of income whist in employment and so George Orwell’s Animal Farm comes to mind immediately. It would appear that while all are supposed to be equal, some are more equal than others. How convenient this is and reeks of hypocrisy.
To add insult to injury, the Communications Manager made a mess of the process when she spoke about leaking of information and this being used maliciously by a ‘partner’ to taint the Management of the Company.
There was no attempt to refute the allegations made but a feeble effort to generalize the discord of Executive Management with these revelations. Then again, she has very little knowledge of the business and is known to speak of what she knows not.
One has to wonder why it is that these alleged acts of malfeasance by the Senior Executive are not being thoroughly investigated. The onus is on the Government of Guyana to take action and once proven, measures must be taken commensurate with the requisite disciplinary actions.
Insider Trading is a fraudulent act and once proven, incarceration should not be an option. It is the Law of the Land and the haemorrhaging must be discontinued forthwith. It was for similar reasons that this individual was let go by the previous Administration and they should not be silent on this.
It is no secret amongst the Senior Employees of GuySuCo that lands at Ogle were dispensed to a selected few within the Company during the first half of 2013 and that one parcel was sold to a Junior Staff (now ex-staff) who was the then the paramour of the Senior Executive in question. The power of horizontal persuasion was apparently second to none.
Further to this, those lands were to be allotted to long serving and deserving Senior Staff who did not have lands or houses of their own. One has to wonder what were the qualifying criteria used to allocate said lands.
SOCU should be called in to investigate this foolishness since it reeks of corruption. The Taxpayers need to know and be satisfied that change is indeed for the better.
Mike Singh Sr.

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