The Guyana Rice Develop-ment Board (GRDB) is “seriously considering taking legal action” against more than 50 rice millers who owe the board some $149 million for services rendered.
General Manager of the GRDB Jagnarine Singh said last week that most of the millers on a debtors’ list published in the April 26 edition of the Sunday Chronicle were now “inactive” or no longer operate on a “large scale”. Agri Tech (Guy) Limited, for example Singh explained, which owes the rice board just over $1.1 million is no longer in existence.
The sums owed, according to Singh, are outstanding export commissions which the named companies failed to pay. In some cases, the general manager said, debts have accumulated over a period of time; from as far back as the 1990s.
In the April 26 advertisement [Debtors List], the GRDB stated, “Persons listed above are asked to check with the Accounts Department, with a view of liquidating their sum by May 4, 2009”. GRDB, it was further stated in the ad, will withdraw services to those persons/companies until “adequate provisions are made to liquidate.
“We expect them [company owners/representatives] to come in and say something,” Singh said.
The responses received from debtors, according to Singh, will determine what step the GRDB takes next. When asked why action was not taken against these companies earlier, Singh said “legal letters and opinions” had been sent to the debtors in the past and previous lists were made public. However, actual legal action was never taken and these companies are yet to approach the GRDB with a proposed payment scheme.
“We will try to work it out,” the GRDB General Manager stated. “But it depends on the response we get from these companies.”
Individual meetings will be conducted with each debtor to review their options, Jagnarine said.
Meanwhile, rice miller Turhane Doerga denied owing the GRDB. Doerga said that he had not seen the notice in the April 26 edition of the Sunday Chronicle. The ad listed Doerga twice as a debtor.
He was cited as the owner of Grains (Guy) Limited and Agriman Incorporated as owing the GRDB $10,064,378 and $21,809,696 respectively. The rice miller was listed as “T. Dorega” and the GRDB general manager later confirmed that the debtor was indeed Turhane Doerga, proprietor of Ruimzeight Rice.
“Regardless of how they spelt my name,” Doerga stated. “If it is indeed me they are referring to then I do not owe them [GRDB] anything.”
