Dear Editor,
Reading the article captioned ‘Expect change in Guysuco management next year’ in the Stabroek News (21.12.08) is a stark reminder that the buck is being passed again in the sugar industry. Sugar had problems for a long time but the only way that industry can turn around is if all the key performance challenges are identified, the solutions are resourced adequately (enough money is put into the industry to re-tool and re-focus it) and the deliverables are project managed to achieve the intended outcome. The PPP government did identify some of the challenges, they did provide some of the resources but they failed miserably from a strategic perspective to project manage the problems. Some of the best minds in Guyana sit on the board of Guysuco but as a collective they did not advise the government well and they did not take any action on this situation and thus must be held accountable for the state of the industry. Blaming GAWU and the management is most unhelpful since all he trying to do is deflect the substantive issues. Never would we find the government accepting that it is at fault for not providing the required continuous attention the sugar industry needs.
GAWU is duty bound to its constituents to represent their interests and to date the union has done a commendable job representing the sugar workers of Guyana. I call on the Government of Guyana to publish the recommendations of the latest ‘Independent Business Review’ on this company. For over five years now, we have been aware that the EU was cutting the price by 36%; that the industry was deteriorating (Ravi Dev spoke of these matters but no one listened); that there were management challenges in the company; that we needed to produce no less than 400,000 tonnes to be viable in the medium term. For over five years too, GAWU has made its position clear on workers’ issues and the wastage in the company, so why all this surprise and the blame game now?
The problem is not GAWU; the real problem is that the government has failed to give the required attention to the industry that it deserves.
At the end of the day, a people deserve the government they elect, so I suspect the sugar workers deserve President Jagdeo. No bonus or production incentive for the hard-working sugar workers who have to do back-breaking work so that we can export sugar and earn foreign currency; the Joint Services are more deserving of annual bonuses. The sugar workers and their union have to carry some of the blame for the government’s indecision. Tough luck, they voted for Mr Jagdeo!
Yours faithfully,
Avinash Sankar
