Sugar estates’ reopening proves closure was “purely political” – Jagdeo

…says Cabinet must take responsibility for “flip flop” policies

By Samuel Sukhnandan

While the Opposition has welcomed the move taken by Government to have at least two sugar estates reopened soon, Opposition Leader and General Secretary of the People’s progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), Bharrat Jagdeo, has said that this now proves Government’s move to close sugar estates was purely political.
However, the Opposition Leader said President David Granger and his entire Cabinet must take full responsibility for the flip-flop policy choice, which also now indicates that the Government’s decision to close sugar estates and downsize the

sugar industry was not based on technical facts.
Jagdeo said, “The Government must admit it made a blunder, it treated the sugar industry in a political fashion when they should have done more technical work, we called on them to do the technical work, they never did, they made the wrong decision and once they admit that, then that’s fine.”
It was reported in sections of the media on Thursday that the Skeldon and Enmore sugar factories are expected to be reopened by the end of March to reap over 300,000 tonnes of sugar cane. The Special Purposes Unit (SPU) will also use the reopening of these estates as an example to prove to potential investors that all of the estates are viable.
As part of plans to reopen these estates, some of the already retrenched sugar

workers will be reemployed to assist with harvesting canes. It is not clear why the Government took the decision to retrench workers, when they were aware that 300,000 tonnes of sugar cane was still to be harvested.
Jagdeo said it was an illogical move that has no basis for the reality on what is taking place on the ground. “We need to understand what the thinking of this Government is. Do they sit down and go through the numbers first before it makes a decision as critical as the one it did, to close an almost 300-year industry. In three years’ time, they have practically shut down half of the industry.”
The former Head of State said he supports the reopening of all four of the estates

which the Government closed, causing tremendous hardships for thousands of sugar workers and their families.
He recalled that Government had stated that there is no future for sugar and that the cost of production is too high, among other things, which led to the massive closures. However, Jagdeo maintained that these were all baseless arguments, which lacked substance and contained no hardcore facts.
“We’ve been bombarded with propaganda from the Government that the debt of GuySuCo (Guyana Sugar Corporation) is over $80 billion. It’s not so. When you adjust the debt to long-term for pension liabilities etcetera, the debt is less than $15 billion, the short-term debt that is,” he explained.
Conducted under the ‘Sugar Industry Privatisation and Diversification’, the SPU is currently soliciting proposals from companies or persons either individually or as part of a joint venture or consortium “with an interest in the privatisation and/or diversification of Skeldon, Rose Hall, Wales and East Demerara ‘Enmore’ factories.” An evaluation of the assets of these estates is also being done.
The downsizing of the sugar industry has been fiercely resisted by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), the parliamentary Opposition and a number of other agencies.
The operations of the La Bonne Intention Estate were amalgamated with those of the Enmore Estate; those at Wales were amalgated with Uitvlugt and there are plans to privatise Skeldon. But the closure of the estates and the sacking of workers are having an effect on the economy.
Thousands of GuySuCo workers were presented with severance letters and a substantial amount have already received part payment. Approximately $500 million was budgeted for severance payments for these workers in 2018, although $5 billion was needed to pay all workers in full.
Some 4000 sugar workers from Enmore, Rose Hall and Skeldon were dismissed from their jobs.