Dear Editor,
Reference is made to your August 12, 2015 edition under the article captioned ‘Jagdeo blames Skeldon sugar project failings on Booker Tate’s “incompetence”’. In the said article the former President is quoted in his news conference at Freedom House on August 11 to have stated that the “incompetence” of UK-based sugar management firm Booker Tate was responsible for the disastrous execution of the Skeldon Sugar Modernisation Project (SSMP), including the US$110M factory that is still unable to produce at an adequate rate, and further that “there is a deal of incompetence”.
Mr Jagdeo further clarified that Booker Tate was assigned the responsibility of being the Project Manager from the “design to construction-completion stage”; that is being responsible for the entire project.
Editor, during the period of design and construction stages of the SSMP, Booker Tate’s representative in Guyana was Mr Errol Hanoman, current CEO and member of the government-appointed Interim Management Committee. Mr Hanoman was Booker Tate’s Regional Director, responsible for Guyana, among other South American states.
The Project Manager, a Booker Tate employee, reported directly to Mr Hanoman.
I think Mr Hanoman is the ideal person to shed some light as to what went wrong with the factory that makes it “unable to produce at an adequate rate”, and he could do so at GuySuCo’s Commission of Inquiry.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Z Khan
