I refer to a letter in the KN of 24th September 2024 captioned “Jagdeo is the only sailor who [is] sailing and not seeing the corruption in GuySuCo and the Ministry of Agriculture” written by one Leroy Charles.

Oct 04, 2024 Letters

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Dear Editor,

In his letter Mr. Charles states that when he enquired from
GuySuCo what the new Skeldon project was all about, he was told that they were going to plant 1500 hectares of cane there, sic, and transport it 30 miles by road to Albion by trailer. Editor, properly grown canes from 1500 hectares would amount to around 112,000 tonnes
of cane! We keep doing the same nonsense over and over again wasting precious national resources simply to buy votes and enrich politicians.

Editor in 2016 they closed Wales factory, the farmers who were supplying almost as much cane to the Wales factory as the
GuySuCo fields, were then told to take their canes to Uitvlugt factory less than two years later most of those farmers abandoned growing cane. This happened since the additional distance to be traveled from Wales factory to Uitvlugt [about 20 miles] was too far to be
economical. These were existing farmers, not the kamikaze new farmers that are now invited to grow cane at Skeldon and make huge losses. In his letter the writer alludes to a milkman and a mansion, and there is abundant evidence that not only this milkman, who has presided over more than one disaster at GuySuCo, but still continues to be elevated within that organization, but others who were
removed for several transgressions, even fraud, continue to operate.
As far as the preparation of the lands at both Albion and now Skeldon are concerned, whatever the cost is, I have a few very burning questions/problems about it.

1. Is it true that the contractor AJM is getting duty-free concessions to bring in the necessary machinery to do these conversions, but is charging an alleged 1.4 million per acre as claimed by Mr. Charles?
2. Is it also true that these machines are then being used to do roadwork without ever having paid the necessary duties? Giving this contractor an unfair advantage when bidding against others who are paying duties etc. for their machines?
3. Is the contractor aware that the land preparation he is doing is completely disastrous, he is converting Dutch beds to board English beds? incidentally a layout I am completely against, but they still
   doing this nonsense notwithstanding that that sort of conversion was what destroyed LBI and Enmore Estates?
4. I saw pictures on Facebook put there by the president himself
   showing land preparation which is using road graders and not laser levelers! which is what that sort of conversion must employ to succeed, every proper rice farmer in Guyana is now using lasers to level their lands to optimize their yields, but GuySuCo, wallowing in their ignorance, despite glaring past evidence against such a layout for mechanical harvesting, are continuing hoping that it will work this time? And are hiring a contractor at very fancy prices and conditions, to convert land from one layout to another without first levelling it
   and grading it to make sure that water can drain away from those fields to allow mechanical harvesting. When will someone in the sugar industry’s main union start objecting to all of this waste on behalf of their members?
5. Is it also true that senior members of the sugar unions are getting big Government contracts and other financial assistance to bribe them
   from properly representing their workers? Repeatedly I have said that the workers of GuySuCo are not benefiting from any of this, only
   corrupt politicians through these contracts are benefiting from it. I have no doubt in my mind that all of this will fail, and not benefit either the people of Guyana, or the sugar workers.

I am not even going to elaborate on my contention that the Ministry of Agriculture,[ MOA] is doing more for corrupt contractors rather than for the farmers, the sugar industry and the people of Guyana.
Finally Editor, the current Director General of the MOA also chairman for GuySuCo, referred to by Mr. Charles, was he not the same Mandanlall Ramraj (PPP Central Committee Member) who was charged with thirty two counts of fraud at the Guyana Rice Board by a
person like Professor Clive Thomas then in charge of Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) ? In seeking to find out what happened, I discovered that 16 of the charges were thrown out, when on 11th October 2018, as reported in the Stabroek News, due to the
nonappearance of superintendent of SOCU Sheronie James, who was testifying in another SOCU matter in the courtroom of the Chief Magistrate, the SOCU’s request for a further date was denied by the magistrate and the matter thrown out of court.

Editor these 16 charges were not properly handled by the prosecution and fell apart. No one established that this man was not guilty of the offences, I’m not sure what happened to the other 16 charges, but this is the man now in charge of a bigger portfolio at the MOA and
97 billion dollars with a minister like Mustafa! When I was four years old my mother taught me about circumstantial evidence “where there is smoke there is fire” putting such persons in charge of big money is fraught with danger. This is the government created by Mr. Jagdeo.
There was no corruption with the Jagan government prior to 2000, today, invoking Cheddi Jagan’s name and reputation at every opportunity, Jagdeo has built one of the most corrupt governments anywhere on this planet. His calling for less corruption in procurement now, is just his usual pappy show!
Sincerely
Tony Vieira

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• Enmore Estates, GUYSUCO, Organization, Skeldon, Uitvlugt factory

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