Dear Editor,
I refer to a letter from Mr Mark Jacobs in yesterday’s Stabroek News captioned `Varying figures have been given for the cost of the Skeldon factory’.
I specifically refer to your editor’s note, which clarifies some of the mistakes that have resulted from the fact that some of our news reporters have been mixing up the Skeldon Sugar Modernisation Project [SSMP] with the new Skeldon Factory, being the cost of only one aspect of the modernisation.
Editor your note is correct that the original costs given us were US$110 million for the factory and US$75 million for the expansion of the cultivation mechanisation etc. a total project cost of US$185 million. We have no way of determining the true cost of the SSMP project today, including the losses due to an operation of this project which can only be described as disastrous.
However, Mr Jacobs has a point, your explanation is clear enough but there are reporters, who report the numerous dollar numbers we and Mr Jacobs have seen over time, without separating the cost of the new Skeldon Factory from the total cost of the project. As I very recently pointed out our reporters are doing a great job of keeping the public aware of the shenanigans going on in this country, but they have to seek a higher level of professionalism and accuracy.
This SSMP project visualised not only a new factory worth US$110 million but the doubling of the Skeldon cultivation, including reclamation of land from swamp, establishing new canals, improved and expanded drainage systems, plus all of the equipment needed to do mechanical harvesting since this large expansion could not possibly be harvested by hand labour.
The reason I record my views for your readers now, is that I am expecting that there will be demands for more money for the sugar industry in the 2015 budget and onwards and that it is time that Dr Rupert Roopnaraine who is currently shadowing Agriculture asks the following questions, how much has the project cost us to date? That is all of the various components of the SSMP, the factory, the field expansion, the cost of mechanisation of all field practices including harvesting, expansion of the drainage system, etc. I believe that we are entitled to know what were the original estimated cost of the project and the current costs, and what have been the operational losses as a result of embarking on this ill-advised expansion?
And compounding the dangerous situation of losing the EU subsidy with the construction of the worst functioning new factory on the planet, also we would be interested to know what total tonnage of farmer’s canes is currently being supplied to the Skeldon Factory, since we were informed that at least 33% of the cane supply would come from farmers.
If memory serves, we were told that the Skeldon modernisation project would yield 110,000 tonnes of sugar per annum at [an unrealistic] 10 tonnes of cane per tonne of sugar, which meant that the farmers would have had to provide 366,666 tonnes of cane, we would like to know how much are they currently supplying?
Yours faithfully,
Tony Vieira
