GuySuCo needs competent leadership

Oct 15, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

With great interest I have been immersed in the many debates concerning the short-term and long term strategic plans of the Guyana Sugar Corporation. Recently, I read a letter penned by one Rajendra Bissessar wherein he asked some pertinent questions and shared his observations with regards to the general direction of the Corporation. I then waited with some degree of anticipation that the leadership of GuySuCo will provide a sensible response.
The gentleman queried whether there is any strategy to take the industry forward; why the TSA or ton canes per acre fell from 3.4 to below 2.4; and what is being done to improve the efficiency of the field and factories. He further opined of the need for ‘vision and creativity’ and not ‘routinism’ and the need for a CEO with knowledge and experience in sugar. He emphasised that all the good news about GuySuCo is centred around increased prices and packaging as if these are all that is needed to turnaround the entity.
The response came a day later, supposedly emanating from three senior Estate Managers with a combined 87 years of experience as ‘sugar professionals’. Their combined response to Bissessar’s letter can only be seen as groveling, hollow and failing to convincingly addressed the issue the writer raised but instead went on a tangential pursuit in an effort to mask the incompetence of the CEO and glorify him. Whilst GuySuCo indeed has a five-year plan, there is a lack of competent leadership to take the industry forward. The Government, if it is serious about sugar should find a knowledgeable CEO as of yesterday.
The reason why I very much doubt that the response to Bissessar was written by the three EMs is the statement, among others, that, ‘The longer it takes to assemble the resources to renew these tillage tractors, the greater the inability to redevelop the fields to make a tangible impact on the Tons of Cane/Tons of Sugar(TC/TS)’. By no stretch of one’s imagination can these ‘sugar professionals’ draw such a ridiculous conclusion. How does land preparation impact the TC/TS? This nonsensical statement can only be made by a man who has no knowledge of sugar. I will also like to add that the procurement of a special type of tillage tractors has been the obsession of this CEO for obvious reasons hence the emphasis on tillage machinery. The mention of flood and the related issues have no bearing on the content of Bissessar’s letter and I will only conclude that it is a red herring device which attempted to camouflage the incompetence of the CEO and market him.
The CEO has grossly mismanaged the sugar industry and he must answer to the stakeholders the following questions:
• Why were many experienced and qualified staff sent home whilst their positions are filled with ‘square pegs’?
• Why did many experienced and qualified staff resigned, especially in procurement and finance? Their positions now filled with misfits.
• Why are ‘new recruits’ being remunerated preferentially? Especially highly paid ‘consultants’. And where are the Reports?
• Is there a competently qualified team of Agriculture and Factory Specialists capable of taking the Industry forward? Or just ‘sing-a-longs’?
• Why is it that the CEO is obsessed with buying exorbitantly expensive tractors which are unsuitable to do proper tillage? A test was done at Albion with 2 of these tractors and it was discovered that these tractors cannot pull a plough and a harrow and ‘drinks fuel’. They were found to be unsuitable and not cost effective. One broke down during the test due to ‘fatigue’.
• Why is the incompetence and underachievement at Uitvlugt being kept hidden?
The Government must immediately relocate this CEO or else sugar will never rise again. A competent person is needed to turn around the most complicated industry in Guyana.

Yours sincerely,
Abdool Majeed

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