Dear Editor,
In a news article of January 5, it was reported that Bharrat Jagdeo, former President of Guyana and now Leader of the Opposition has warned that his party will oppose any move to privatize the sugar industry (GuySuCo). A Commission of Inquiry (CoI) has reported on the future development of GuySuCo and its contents have been laid in parliament for consideration and deliberation.
There are grave doubts given the global pricing outlook for sugar that GuySuCo can return to profitability in the foreseeable future, and its sustainability and survival will be dependent on continued government subsidies which will be difficult to maintain without causing severe damage to the country’s economy. Therefore the government would have to bite the bullet and make the tough decision to privatize GuySuCo ‒ the sooner the better.
For a start the government should appoint a reputable qualified real estate agency from abroad to provide a detailed inventory of GuySuCo’s assets with their estimated current market values. Guyanese should not be involved with this assignment as their penchant for graft, reward for special favours, cronyism and pay-back for the politically well connected could easily corrupt the disposal process. Pradoville 2 is a stark reminder of how the Jagdeo administration abused its power to develop and dispose of government’s property for which the present APNU+AFC government is still to bring the perpetrators to justice. Therefore disposal of Guyana’s most valuable assets has to be open, fair and transparent so that the country and its people could benefit from the sale. Further, the government should be advised how the assets should be bundled to attract maximum closed bidding prices and not through NICIL’s negotiations.
Experience has shown that rehabilitating the fields, factories and infrastructure of GuySuCo to make the assets more attractive to investors and to command a higher sale price would be a retrograde step as the cost so expended would never be fully recouped, and therefore the assets should be sold as is. After all, only the buyer will know how the assets will be deployed for maximum profits.
GuySuCo’s sale will have many other hurdles to overcome such as compensation for the workers who will be laid off, debts to be paid off and legal agreements made with others to be satisfactorily resolved. These are not insurmountable issues, and with a competent composed team they could be readily resolved.
Finally, Mr Jagdeo is under the false notion that GuySuCo is responsible for the drainage system along the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) and Guyana generally. Fortunately drainage of most of the lowlying areas on the ECD and elsewhere along coastal Guyana has been the responsibility of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), a division of the Ministry of Agriculture and not GuySuCo. NDIA has also been providing all the irrigation needs for GuySuCo at zero cost. Therefore it is not clear as Dr Clive Thomas claims that commercialization of GuySuCo’s drainage and irrigation facilities could provide much needed revenue for a deeply indebted corporation.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan
