Jagdeo is the only sailor who sailing and not seeing the corruption in Guysuco and the Ministry of Agriculture

Sep 24, 2024 Letters

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Dear Editor,

In one of the National Newspapers, it was reported that a senior Guysuco official met with some five interested bidders and they had discussion on the project to plant canes at Skeldon.

Well, I rang up the folks at GuySuCo and asked what is this Project at Skeldon all about, since there is no factory to crush this cane.  I was told the officials at the Ministry of Agriculture at very high levels, have instructed the Guysuco Board to prepare and plant 1,500 hectares of land at Skeldon.  So I asked where is this cane being crushed. I was told that the plan was to transport it and crush it at Albion, some 30 miles away.  This is special situation since the last time GuySuCo did this around 2014, the records will show that it cost the people of Guyana some $29 million per day in losses then to transport this cane with heavy spillage on the roadways, a major traffic hazard in the Corentyne and the rapid deterioration in the canes leading to TCTS of over 25 at that time (meaning a wasting of the cane at great loss to the Corporation in 2014). But I suspect the Minister of Agriculture Mr. Zulfikar Mustapha got a PHD now in sugar agronomy and sugar cane logistics for him to allow such a hare brain and insane scheme to happen under his watch.

Mr. Editor, the long and short of this story, it is insanity.  Guysuco did it before and failed and to conduct such an operations today in 2024 without any of the base conditions changing, makes it highly uneconomical at a huge loss to the people (does this explain by Guysuco has taken already $15 billion from the people in 2024).  In the past, this transporting of canes made it a money cow for the private sector contractors and the corrupt officers from Guysuco who ran Skeldon Estate at that time, one of whom built a mansion off the improper gains from transporting canes from Skeldon to Albion.  Maybe it is time for this corrupt official (known as the milkman and still with Guysuco today) and his supporters in the Ministry to build a few more mansions this time.

I then asked a senior field man at one of the Berbice Estates, what are the processes they did in 2023 to prepare beds friendly to mechanized harvesting and how much it had cost last year.  They told me they cleared land, they graded and flattened the Dutch Bed (small beds), they then used the soil to create new Broad Beds to facilitate the mechanized operations and then they ploughed and planted those newly created Broad Beds.  But he did not tell me the cost, so I again ask what was the cost.  The gentleman started laughing and said “bannas, why you asking such a question and continued laughing”.  I said I am serious. But I never got an answer.

I then asked another officer and he told me the board under the Chairmanship of Mr. Mandanlall Ramraj (PPP Central Committee Member) knows everything since the land conversion process rates was approved by the Board in 2023 but he was told that these are all political decisions and they are told to make it happen.  He then said the private contractors charged $1 million per hectare to complete these four processes done on the Berbice Estates by the private sector.  I ask, if Guysuco was to do these four operations, how much would it cost and he said about $900,000 per hectare.  That means the profit for the private man was $100,000 per hectare for the private man and in my opinion these 2023 prices were reasonable.  The private sector must make a 10% -15% profit.

I then asked, what processes are happening at Skeldon.  He said they are clearing the land and then ploughing and planting the land since these beds are already Broad Beds ready for mechanized operations.  Mr. Editor, listen to the sequence of the operations – at Albion, Rose Hall, Blairmont and Uitvlugt in 2023 it cost $1 million to do four major operations and therefore it should not cost more than half a million to do two operations at Skeldon.

But then he told me, boy, like you did not hear, “Jumbo done get the contract to do the two operations at Skeldon for $1.5 million a hectare, that is the instructions from the Ministry and a senior Agriculture Officer in GuySuCo who said the Minister made him the CEO of Skeldon”.  Mr. Editor, understand what I am saying here – four operations cost $1 million in 2023, and in 2024, two of the four operations which supposed to cost less, is costing the people of Guyana MORE; some 50% more ($1.4 million per hectare according to the NPTAB data).

If you do not believe me, the table below is an NPTAB table and look at AJM Enterprises (No. 7), the perceived selected candidate to conduct these works.  The table shows AJM Enterprises is charging the taxpayers of Guyana some $2.1 billion to clear, tilling and plant 1,500 hectares of land (the maths tells me it is $1.4 million per hectares to do this task).

Hon. Vice President Bharat Jagdeo keep saying every week at his press conference, show me the evidence of the corruption in Government.  Well can someone please ask Dr Jagdeo to visit the “Da Silva House of Optics” to change his glasses, because while this entire nation sees the corruption at Guysuco and the Agriculture Sector in September 2024, he is the only sailor who sailing and not seeing the corruption in Guysuco and the Ministry of Agriculture.

Regards,

Leroy Charles

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• Leroy Charles, Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Zulfikar Mustapha, project, Skeldon

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