How the government chose private profit over public good

Dec 22, 2025 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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(The following column was only partly published yesterday due to the Printer’s Devil. The full column is being published today.)

(Kaieteur News) – For many years, the sugar industry in Guyana has been in trouble. The company that runs it, GUYSUCO, loses a lot of money. Every year, the government uses billions of dollars from the people to keep it running. This is tax money that could build schools, fix roads, or help hospitals.

A plan was made years ago to fix the problems of sugar… It was a turnaround plan. The idea was simple. GUYSUCO needed to stop losing money. It needed to break even. To do this, the plan focused on two main things.

First, it aimed to lower the cost of producing our traditional sugar. Second, and very importantly, it aimed to create new ways for GUYSUCO to earn money. These are called revenue streams.

The plan was not a secret. It centered on smart, modern projects. One major idea was co-generation of electricity. The waste from sugar cane, called bagasse, could be burned to produce power. GUYSUCO could then sell this electricity to the national grid. This would bring in steady cash.

Another idea was to move beyond raw sugar. The plan was for GUYSUCO to produce value-added sugars. This means packaged sugars for supermarkets. Think of the white sugar you buy in a sealed bag at the store. That bag sells for more than the raw bulk sugar GUYSUCO usually exports. There were also plans to produce molasses. And possibly even to start a rum distillery. Rum is a high-value product.

The goal was clear. Use these new projects to create new income. Combine that income with lower production costs. This mix would allow GUYSUCO to stand on its own feet. It would help the thousands of workers who depend on it. It was a practical plan for a public company.

Given this plan, a recent government decision is shocking. It is, I daresay, disgraceful.

We have learned that the government has given permission to a private company. This company will be allowed to produce white, packaged sugar right here in Guyana. This is exactly the kind of value-added product the turnaround plan mentioned for GUYSUCO.

Just why was GUYSUCO not allowed this benefit? It is unexplainable. It is inexplicable.

Think about the situation. GUYSUCO is owned by the state. It is bankrolled by the people’s money. It racks up losses year after year. The government says it wants to help the industry. Yet here was a golden opportunity. White sugar production is a money-spinning opportunity. It is more profitable than raw sugar.

Instead of handing this opportunity to the struggling public entity, the government gave it away. They handed control of this higher-value product to a private firm. They chose a private business over the people’s business.

This is a direct blow to the sugar industry. It takes a key revenue stream away from GUYSUCO. It makes the path to breaking even much harder, if not impossible.

And to add insult to injury, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has defended this decision. He has the temerity to try and explain away this betrayal.

The decision to allow a private company, rather than Guysuco, to produce sugar contradicts a major promise made by the PPPC in its 2025 Manifesto. The Stabroek News of August 24, 2025 quoted the PPPC’s Manifesto as stating: “Over the next five years, we will: Ensure the sugar industry remains open and sugar workers remain employed. Con-tinue to convert our fields for strategic mechanisation. Modernise our factories, and invest in value-added production such as packaged refined, and specialty sugars.”

The PPPC is barely into one hundred days of its new term. And it has already broken a major Manifesto promise.

This decision to allow a private firm to benefit from the production of value-added sugar, confirms what has long been said about the PPPC government. It shows they are all for the bourgeois class. That means they favor the wealthy business owners.

Here the government was handed a perfect chance. They could have done something real for sugar. They could have helped GUYSUCO become stronger. They could have secured jobs for sugar workers. They could have used a profitable venture to save a national industry.

Instead, they deferred to the propertied class.  They turned their back on the public’s own company.

What is the message here? It seems to be that losses are for the public to bear. The government will spend billions to cover GUYSUCO’s debts. But profits? Profits are for private enterprises. When a chance to make real money appears, it is taken from the public and given to the private.

This is not how you save an industry. This is how you kill it slowly.

This government decision steals that future. It breaks the promise of the plan. It betrays the sugar workers. It betrays the Guyanese people who fund this failing company. It is a disgraceful choice that puts private profit firmly ahead of the public good.

(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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• fix roads, GUYSUCO, Peeping Tom, private profit

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