Look at Glenn’s Tik Tok video!

Oct 09, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Glenn Lall has done a most interesting Tik Tok video. In that presentation, he raised an important point which goes not only to the heart of the country’s management of its oil and gas sector but also to the economy.

Lall mentioned that the old sugar factories are producing sugar far cheaper than the Skeldon Plant. These old factories have machinery that looks as if they came out of the Steam Age. The machinery belongs in a scrap yard. Yet, these same old ‘cork ball’ factories are able to produce sugar at a lower cost than the spanking new, almost US$200M sugar factor, which was conceived and constructed under the Jagdeo administration.

It is the failure of this investment by the Jagdeo administration which bears the greatest responsibility for the sending home of some 7,000 sugar workers, an act which ironically backfired on the APNU+AFC and allowed for the return of the PPP/C to office.

The construction of the new Skeldon Factory was supposed to be the keystone of the much-vaunted turnaround plan for the sugar industry. That plan was never put before the Guyanese people for their input; it was imposed on the sugar industry without adequate consultations.

The construction of the Skeldon Sugar Factory was supposed to modernise sugar production but more importantly, slash production costs – the key to the turnaround the sugar industry. The factory, however, did the very opposite, it setback the sugar industry. As was said in the National Assembly, the factory became a financial behemoth.

The construction of the Skeldon Sugar Factory sank the sugar industry. But quite amazingly, the architect of the project was elevated back into the political limelight. If history is not a contradiction then what is. After the debacle of that factory, Jagdeo – with all due respect – should never have been allowed to come anywhere near a cake shop, much less to have a major role in the management of the country’s oil and gas sector.

The government, with Jagdeo in the pilot seat, is moving fast ahead with a gas-to-energy project which will transport natural gas from the oil wells to the West Bank of Demerara and allow for the construction of an energy plant which will feed an industrial complex. By the time that price tab is completed, it may end up costing taxpayers in excess of 3 billion United States dollars or more than 15 times the cost of the dysfunctional Skeldon Sugar Factory.

But what is most frightening is that this project is going ahead without a feasibility study that is specific to the project. There is only a feasibility study in relation to the use of natural gas compared to fossil fuels but none about the actual project itself. The risks are therefore extremely high that the country can end up with another white elephant. If this happens, then Guyana would have ended up squandering its oil wealth. Is that what it will take to force Jagdeo to retire, once and for all, to his mansion in Sparendaam, never again to be involved in any major economic enterprise in this country?

Guyana cannot risk the billion dollars experiment which Jagdeo and the PPP are undertaking in this country. This is not monopoly money that is being dabbled with. This is real money and the future of real lives is at stake. After Skeldon, every single Guyanese should be circumspect about having Jagdeo anywhere near any major economic projects.

The APNU+AFC made a colossal blunder. It should have launched a Commission of Inquiry into the Skeldon Sugar Factory and the sugar turnaround plan. It did not do so because it did not understand the importance of accountability. Those responsible for the failed economic juggernaut should have been held accountable for their actions.

Why instead of constructing that monstrous factory, did the PPP/C not continue with the plans to increased packaged and branded sugar? This would have made greater sense than trying to reduce overall national production costs through the operations of one major and modern factory.

The Skeldon Sugar Plant is so modern that it cannot be properly fixed onto now. Again, the APNU+AFC failed the country by not asking the Chinese government to fix the factory at their expense. This would not have been impossible nor would have created an unusual precedent. The APNU+AFC asked the Chinese government to fix the Arthur Chung Conference Centre. The Chinese government did so to the tune of more than G$600M. So why was the Chinese government not asked to fix the Skeldon Sugar Factory?

What is certain is that if the gas-to-energy project follows in the footsteps of the Skeldon Sugar Factory, not only would it not be fixed but nothing would be able to rescue Guyana from economic doom.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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