Cabinet subcommittee to consider way forward for GuySuCo

– estates’ closure still on the cards

The A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Government has established a Cabinet subcommittee to look into several options with regards to the future of the cash-strapped Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).

Speaking at the post-Cabinet briefing, Minister of State Joseph Harmon noted that the subcommittee was set up following top GuySuCo officials on Tuesday briefing Cabinet on its current status of operations, as well as future plans.
The GuySuCo delegation included Chairman Professor Clive Thomas and Chief Executive Officer Errol Hanoman.

According to Harmon on Thursday, the subcommittee was established to consider various options laid out by GuySuCo about its future. He noted out that he along with the Ministers of Agriculture, Finance and Natural Resources were appointed members of the subcommittee, tasked with crafting an approach based on discussions in Cabinet.
The minister added that the subcommittee is expected to submit its report by mid-November, as Government is adamant about having a final decision on the future of GuySuCo before the end of 2016.
Among the options proffered by GuySuCo to Cabinet for consideration were to allow the corporation to run as is or engage in limited diversification.
“The presentation to Cabinet gave considerations of the matters which ranged from maintaining the status quo – that is to say, just do nothing and allow the corporation to go as it is, to the point of a limited form of diversification. So along that continuum of opportunities, there were several proposals which were made,” he outlined.
The Minister of State further outlined that the corporation is of the belief that the worst option was to maintain the status quo since there were serious implications for the national treasury, which can incur the cost of some $18.6 billion in 2017 and another $21.4 billion in 2018, just to maintain this option.
GuySuCo already has in excess of $80 billion in debt, notwithstanding the fact that only last week, the cash-strapped GuySuCo was asked to repay a loan of almost $4 billion which it received from Central Government as part of its $12 billion subsidy last year.
“Your Government was forced to divert money from economic development and social projects to rescue the ailing corporation with an immediate injection of $12 billion. An additional $11 billion had to be provided the next year, 2016, making a total of $23 billion bailout in 18 months.”
This comes in light of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) advising the Guyana Government to reduce bailouts to the cash-strapped industry, especially given that experts are saying that it is not a viable option.
“We cannot continue to pour this type of money into an industry at the expense at the other developments which have to take place in the country such as developments in education, in health, in security and all of these things that relate to the happiness and good life for the people of this country,” Harmon admitted.
On the other hand, while he was cautious about fully revealing all the options government is currently looking at because of the sensitive nature of the issue, it was indicated that closure of estates was among them:
“All of these are the options; these are all options because if you are going to close down anything you have to consider the workers and how you deal with them…we are still in early days where that is concerned.”
He said that he does not want to be specific about the options since another route may come up during the deliberations.
“These are options and options are things which you look at the pros and cons of it, whether this is good or that is bad… It is not always good to go about and say these are the options, these are the deliberations because you may very well find sometimes at the end of your deliberation that you come up with a conclusion that is not consistent with your earlier position.
So it is always important that we be very careful and cautious in what we announced and put out there in the public because any wrong step, because of the nature of this industry and because of the number of persons who are employed in it, any wrong statement can send the wrong signal and create panic and confusion,” the Minister of State remarked.
Nevertheless, Harmon posited that no decision will be taken without any widespread consultation with all stakeholders including sugar workers in accordance to the 5-point process Cabinet had previously adopted to tackle the issue.