The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) on Tuesday commenced its investigation into the recent flying knives incident at the Uitvlugt Estate which shut down the Number Two Turbine and stalled cane production for over a week.
Based on information provided thus far, GuySuCo is viewing the fault as an “engineering matter”. It was not disclosed if any possible sanctions would be imposed as the probe is in in infancy state.
Through an official release, GuySuCo pointed out that senior managers and several senior engineers will investigate the matter along with managers from the
The Uitvlugt Estate, West Coast Demerara
Human Resources and Health and Safety departments.
“The investigation commenced during last week, and the accident is viewed as an engineering matter. Approximately 111 tonnes of sugar (were) declared from the sugarcane which was burnt at the time of the incident. However, as a result of the staling of the canes, the variance from the estimated sugar expected from the canes is almost 68 tonnes of sugar,” an excerpt from the release stated.
GuySuCo did say the investigation will be conducted over a three-week period. It was the Guyana Times which recently reported that an investigation would be launched to determine just how the cane shredder became uncontrollable and 64 out of 70 knives went haywire. Workers ducked for safety when the knives hit the wall. However, several tonnes were able to be salvaged after the estate’s turbine had to be replaced with one from the defunct La Bonne Intention (LBI) factory.
However, according to information obtained, the grains were of a substandard quality, as the sugar was “grainy” as opposed to coarse crystals which are consistent with a higher quality of produce.
GuySuCo’s Chief Industrial Relations Manager, Deodat Sukhoo, will head an investigation into the flying knives incident. There were initial inquiries by senior officers of GuySuCo who visited the Uitvlugt factory when it broke down and millions of dollars’ worth of cane was initially left to spoil. However, several tonnes were later saved after the story broke in this newspaper.
Guyana Times reported too that the Chief Industrial Relations Manager will be making periodic visits to the factory, where he will meet the workers involved and obtain their version of events and how it unfolded when the Number Two Turbine lost control. The damage to the cane shredder resulted in millions of dollars in losses, at the expense of the State.
