Govt to set up Committee to oversee sale of GuySuCo’s lands

As Government moves towards liquidating assets of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) to ensure that the downsized industry remains economically viable, a committee will be established to oversee the sale of the sugar lands.
This is according to the Director General at the Ministry of the Presidency (MOTP), Joseph Harmon.
Speaking on the divestment of GuySuCo’s assets, Harmon noted that with the valuation completed, the process has started to facilitate the sale of the sugar corporation’s lands that are no longer needed by the “new GuySuCo”.
“We’ve had to establish a State’s Land Sales Committee that will ensure there is transparency in the disposal of these assets because, in our modern history, this will be the largest transfer of assets by the State to the Private Sector,” he revealed.
According to the Government’s spokesperson, it is important to ensure that all the processes are transparent and open so that no one can question the process and say one buyer benefited more than another.
“So that is being done right and that activity for the sale of lands that are not going to be part of the new GuySuCo, will commence very shortly,” Harmon posited.
The sale of these lands is intended to raise money to sustain the downsized sugar industry, which only has three estates operating and is still facing financial troubles.
Previously, GuySuCo had sold a portion of its lands to the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) and according to President David Granger on Friday, he has instructed that the agency purchase more lands to facilitate Government’s housing drive.
“Some lands will be coming out of sugar… But when those lands become available, I’ve asked Central Housing and Planning Authority [and] the Minister of Communities [Ronald Bulkan] to put in a bid for lands for low-income settlements,” the Head of State told residents on the East Bank of Demerara during a visit.
In May 2017, Government announced plans to close the Enmore and Rose Hall Sugar Estates, sell the Skeldon Sugar Factory, reduce the annual production of sugar, and take on the responsibility of managing the drainage and irrigation services offered by GuySuCo. Subsequently, in November of that year, GuySuCo announced plans to retrench 2500 workers by the end of that year. That number increased substantially and ended up being over 7000.
Government then established the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) under the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL) to take over the divestment of GuySuCo’s assets that were earmarked for sale. The SPU recruited PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) to conduct a valuation of the assets to be privatised and divested. That process was completed and the Unit had met with some of the bidders last October.
However, Harmon explained to reporters on Friday that because the valuation process was lengthy, they now have to re-engage persons and companies that had initially expressed interests in purchasing the factories.
“You had interests by several companies and because [the valuation] took a little while, some of those interests have waned and so we have now to re-establish contact with some of the parties who’d expressed an interest in the first place. So that is going on and that’s a very active issue right now,” the Director-General at the MOTP said.
During that meeting last year, among the areas the bidders had concerns about was the state of the equipment and factories.
But Government had secured last year a $30 billion bond, through commercial banks, both in Guyana and the region, as part of the diversification initiatives.
Just over a year after securing the bond, Government has repaid some $132 million in interest owed on the $30 billion bond.
“The first payment came up on 24th of [May]. We have been able to make that payment, with some stress. But we did make it, we didn’t default on it. The interest is $1.6 billion. The next payment is in November. Every six months,” Finance Minister Winston Jordan told <<<Guyana Times>>> earlier this week.
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has been critical of Government’s move to secure the bond, saying that it is putting the country in further debt unnecessarily. In fact, at his weekly press conference on Thursday, Jagdeo lamented on the lack of transparency with the monies.
“No transparency, whatsoever, surrounding this large bond of $30 billion – mostly of which is available to the SPU and they’re spending it as their personal money. No transparency and now we have to pay back for it, the taxpayers of this country,” the Opposition Leader stated.