Sweeping changes must be made at GuySuCo – President Ali

…says mechanisation of estates must be accelerated

Expressing the need for sweeping changes at the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), President Dr Irfaan Ali on Tuesday charged officials at the corporation to improve efficiency and accelerate their timelines for mechanisation on the estates.

The President, accompanied by the Agriculture Ministry’s Director General, Madanlall Ramraj; Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Delma Nedd and Director of Projects at the Office of the President, Marcia Nadir-Sharma, met with approximately 180 senior officials of GuySuCo at State House, Main Street, Georgetown.
During the meeting, the President emphasised that it cannot be “business as usual anymore” and there must be sweeping changes. According to him, the corporation does not belong to any individual or group, but to the country.
“We are not investing all of these resources in GuySuCo for failure. The restructuring and strengthening of GuySuCo is not a joke. When we said we want to make this industry viable, it is not a mystery.”
“Success does not start with money, success starts with the right attitude, success starts with teams, success starts with people and if we can’t get this fundamentally right, then we have no hope of being successful—absolutely no hope of being successful,” President Ali posited.
An issue that was raised during the meeting was the high turnover rate for field workers. But when told by estate managers from Albion and Blairmont that their plans envision a 60 per cent increase in mechanisation and the use of specialised tractors by 2026, the President noted that their time span must be slashed to 2024.
“I know the problem, I understand the problem and that is why we have to accelerate this mechanisation,” the President said, tasking the Board of Directors and senior managers of the corporation to organise a sub-committee that will analyse the corporation’s objectives as soon as possible.
The President also tasked the senior officials to have a weekly management meeting, in order to improve communication and management. He noted that the corporation will not advance if people have different visions. Additionally, he urged the senior officials to visit all of the estates and speak to all of the employees.
“People depend on us, and I depend on you. At the end of the day, the buck stops at my Office. The same exercise conducted this morning at the senior level I want to be conducted at the estate level and junior staff level.”
“I want all personality issues in this organisation to be stripped today… an organisation requires collective thinking and action,” he said, also urging the senior officials and managers to be humble in the execution of their duties.
Despite recommendations from a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) commissioned by the then President David Granger, the APNU/AFC Administration closed the Wales, East Demerara, Rose Hall and Skeldon sugar estates, sending some 7,000 workers on the breadline.
When the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration assumed office in August 2020, efforts were made to reopen these estates. From October 2020 to date, over 1380 persons were hired/rehired to work in the sugar industry.
Back in February of this year, GuySuCo Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sasenarine Singh had assured that the often cash-strapped entity will not be a burden on the Guyana Government forever. In fact, he had said that GuySuCo will be fixed within five years.
According to Singh, the organisation has a five-year strategic plan which will see the reduction of production costs and increased profits – which will eventually make the entity “cash neutral”.
“With a good strategic plan, the right amount of resources at the right time and when I’m talking about resources, I’m talking about capital, talent, machinery…this industry is fixable within four years,” Singh expressed.
“GuySuCo is not going to be a drain on the Government forever and that is why this strategic plan clearly has a road map whereby GuySuCo will become cash neutral in the near future,” he added.
The five-year strategic plan aims to improve the mechanising of all the estates such as the refurbishing of generators across the industry, the building of 250 new punts, the creation of a new packaging plant at Albion which will begin this year, the expansion of the packaging plant at Blairmont, among other initiatives.