GuySuCo’s Uitvlugt Estate manager has been sent on early retirement following issues with performance.
Aaron Dukhia, according to a reliable source within the industry, was “sent on early retirement” yesterday. Several efforts made to contact Dukhia for a comment last evening were futile.
The decision to send Dukhia on early retirement, Stabroek News learnt, was taken under a “no-nonsense” stance by the GuySuCo (Guyana Sugar Corporation) as part of its turnaround plan.
GuySuCo suffered a $3 billion loss from 2008 with projected cash deficits going forward. Measures in its turnaround plan all target cost-cutting projects coupled with injecting capital. The plan had been banking on the sale of lands at Diamond with a potential net gain of $34B to materialize, in addition to the disposal of several other assets to improve the financial position of the industry which is also plagued by declining levels of sugar production. The Diamond lands remain unsold.
Dukhia is the second GuySuCo manager to be let go this year. On March 15 GuySuCo fired its Materials Manager Aasrodeen Shaw after it was alleged he was found guilty of breaching the corporation’s procurement procedures in the purchasing electrodes. This had resulted in a halt in the Corporation’s operations section, GuySuCo Director Nanda Gopaul later said.
Shaw subsequently said that he was fired by the company because he’d produced a damning report which exposed weaknesses that were costing the corporation millions of dollars.
