Corruption became infectious and GuySuCo remain in checkmate-its the same for Guyana

May 28, 2018 Letters

---

Dear Editor,
Over the last few days, there were some revelations in the KN about GuySuCo’s internal failings over the years. These revelations did not surprise the public. The public is aware of all the skullduggery that goes on in GuySuCo. In fact, some people are accusing the media of being lazy for being so late, until GuySuCo is seemingly breathing its last breath, to reveal what has been transpiring for years. What is surprising is GuySuCo’s response through its Corporate Communications Manager on these second hand (late) information that was circulated by KN. GuySuCo’s CCM, A Thomas said that GuySuCo is disappointed in KN for allowing itself,” to be used repeatedly by forces whose motives seem to be intended to destabilize the Corporation, bring the management into disrepute, and cause irreparable damage to the business.” ‘Destabilize’ what! All Guyana knows that GuySuCo is damaged goods. Its management has always been in ‘disrepute’. Had GuySuCo been a private company, it would have filed for bankruptcy a decade ago or made the changes necessary to return it to profitability. GuySuCo is a state owned corporation, its failure to stand on its own feet for umpteenth years now is costing the people of this country in the form of taxes and lost opportunities. All the billions spent to keep GuySuCo afloat plus its 80 billion debt to NIS and other institutions will have to be repaid from the Treasury. These monies spent on roads, schools and increase of salaries of public servants would have bettered the living conditions for all Guyanese.
In that regard, it is hard to imagine Guyanese people or organizations, even the PPP, attributed to as “forces” by Thomas, will ever think of destabilizing GuySuCo in its present state. Indeed! There is no other entity in this country that exhibits a burning desire to see GuySuCo survive than the PPP and its supporters. Given Guyana’s present dispensation, one has to wonder if Thomas was suffering from a bout of hallucination when she penned the phrase, “forces whose motives seem to be intended to destabilize THE CORPORATION.”
A. Thomas in her missive mentioned “THE CORPORATION” ten times. Not once did she conceive of the notion to say who is the owner of the corporation. Had she been patriotic enough to mention that the Guyanese people are the real owners of “the corporation”, she may have been persuaded by conscience to mention that the owners – given the present conundrum GuySuCo finds’ itself in- wouldn’t mind a little misinformation being peddled in the media, if management of the corporation can prove same, in their search for the truth about GuySuCo’s demise. In the real business world, management owes the owners a good explanation for their failure, that has not been a hallmark of GuySuCo.
I had the luxury of asking three redundant workers what they thought was responsible for GuySuCo’s “down fall’. All said management. I had asked for an explanation. One said, management did not listen to the concerns, problems or ideas of workers at the production level. Another said, the managers steal too much. The third, in his own words explain that when the junior managers and foremen conceived that the senior managers were stealing, they started to steal too, then the worker followed suit. He opined that corruption became infectious. He told me of workers stealing fertilizer and workers dumping fertilizer into canals that they were supposed to apply on cane, just to get paid for the job. He told me that he had walked on Ragonite {a rocky, hard to dissolve substance used on cane} that was dumped by workers, many places while cleaning trenches on the estate he had worked.
I spoke to an elderly man who was a cane cutter before nationalization of the industry. He said, “the managers used to keep a meeting at 4am every morning to plan the day’s work. Can you get the present managers to wake up at 4am every morning?”
The CCM wrote, “The Corporation has absolutely no difficulty with the publishing of its information; however, it is concerned as to the source and intention of the source of the information, as well as, the fact that the Kaieteur News seems not to be interested in seeking clarity from the Corporation before publication.””Absolutely no difficulty”, are a mundane choice of words by the CCM. About KN not interested in “seeking clarity” from GuySuCo. The CCM should know that Public Corporations, even the service oriented ones, are sworn to secrecy for ages now. Apart from that, whatever information Public Corporations feel obliged to disseminate, the media have to practically go to espionage to get anything that may tarnish their integrity.
GuySuCo’s present management team has a lot of soul searching to do in their attempt to wriggle whatever is left of it to a better place. They should not be too concerned by these revelations. They should be happy to use these revelations as pointers to the issues that need to be addressed.
Rudolph Singh

---

---