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Agri. Ministry inks over $610M in contracts – $426M for ailing GuySuCo
Kaieteur News – One day after the Ministry of Agriculture secured over $5.4B in supplementary funding from the National Assembly, it has moved to ink over $610M in contracts and $426M out of that amount is for the ailing Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
A total of 13 contracts, six of them related to GuySuCo, were on Tuesday signed at Ministry’s board room at Regent Street and Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.
The six GuySuCo contracts were mainly for the recapitalisation of its operations and were inked by its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sasenarine Singh. Out of the $426M worth of contracts signed by the entity, $25.9M were for the supply and delivery of eight 20 feet flat bottom aluminum boats with engines from General Equipment Guyana Ltd. Another $45.1M was inked with Garnet Engineers for the supply and delivery of materials to re-tube a boiler.
The ministry claimed that this expenditure is necessary because “all of the generating tubes of the boiler are worn out to its minimum acceptable wall thickness and their replacement is necessary to avoid a catastrophic failure during operation.”
GuySuCo also handed out a $17.6M contract to M. Sukhai
Minister Zulfikar Mustapha posing for a photo with contractors on Tuesday
Contracting Services for the construction of a 300-metre light duty revetment dam at the Uitvlugt Sugar Estate. According to the Sugar Corporation, a new dam is needed there because the current one has eroded significantly and is in a dilapidated state.
The State entity will also pay General Equipment Guyana Limited a total of $295M for mobile drainage pumps to combat flooding of its sugar lands due to recent significant increase in rainfall across the coast. Forty of the mobile drainage pumps being obtained are CUSEC ones and will be supplied at a total cost of $40M.
GuySuCo is also rehabilitating the Cane Gantry at Rose Hall Sugar Estate in Berbice, Region Six for $43.2M and the works will be done by Yunas Civil and Buildings Construction Services.
The remainder of the 13 contracts is for the Guyana Livestock and Development Authority (GLDA) and the Ministry’s Agriculture Sector Development Unit (ASDU).
GLDA handed out three contracts and these amounted to over $34M. Out of that amount, $24.1M is for the construction of a swine facility with a semen processing area by Triple A Construction Services Limited at Mon Repos on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD). A sum of $7M was awarded to R. Persid Construction to build a housing facility for Broiler and Black Giant Breeder birds and J & A Lumber Yard and Contracting Services got $3M to build a support for an autoclave machine at the GLDA’s veterinary laboratory.
GuySuCo CEO Sasenarine Singh signing one of the multi-million dollar contracts handed out on Tuesday to support the ailing sugar industry
The last four contracts, totalling $147M, were for the supply and delivery of land and water transportation for the Ministry’s ASDU department. Some $68M will go towards the purchase of 4×4 double cab pick-ups from Beharry Automotive Limited, $21.2M for new ATVs and off road motorcycles from Marics and Company and $59.1M for outboard engines and boats from Farm Supplies Limited.
Speaking at the contract signing, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha said that his ministry has been signing millions in contracts during the course of this year to fulfill its responsibility to the people of Guyana.
Justifying his government’s decision to continue pumping billions into GuySuCo, although it is operating at a lost, Mustapha said that the sugar sector is very important for the country. The minister added that his government is now pumping more into the ailing sector for the purpose of recapitalising its operations in hopes that the investment will bring a “break even and at the same time profitability” at GuySuCo.
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