– says public must judge fairness of investments for themselves
The parliamentary Opposition has called on the Government to publicise the Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) valuation report into the Guyana Sugar Corporation’s (GuySuCo) assets.
The valuation was supposed to have preceded the sale of the various estates and accompanying assets. That process has already started; however, neither the Government nor the accounting firm has released the document. At his recent press conference, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo zeroed in on this state of affairs.
“We were told that before any decision was made, that Price Waterhouse Coopers will do a valuation of assets. Where is the valuation of the assets and why don’t they release it to the Guyanese public, so we will see what they have valued the assets of GuySuCo at and whether we come close to realising that value.”
“Or if they have undervalued the assets of GuySuCo and then would claim that they got more than the valuation. We’d like to see a copy of the report. But it seems as though its done secretly and we don’t know what assurances are given by PwC and [Special Purpose Unit] SPU, whether those are assurances Cabinet has agreed to,” the Opposition Leader said.
The East Demerara Sugar Estate was already valuated by PwC
Some 14 companies hailing from as far as Canada, and as near as Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, have so far expressed interest in purchasing the three remaining sugar estates that are up for sale.
A meeting with these investors and officials from the Special Purpose Unit was held on September 25. According to the Unit, they would have met with the executives to discuss taxes and permits, and NICIL is expecting that they would be able to sell the Rose Hall, Skeldon and East Demerara estates by next year.
Some of the topics discussed at the meeting last week included questions about the Government’s energy policy, and whether or not there will be markets for products such as ethanol.
Permits for intended workers, the condition of the estates, and whether they are worth buying were also raised. It was indicated that the East Demerara Estate was operational during the last crop, while Skeldon is in preparation mode to open in November.
The Rose Hall estate, on the other hand, is expected to be opened in 2019. Bids for the privatisation process are expected to be submitted by October 31.
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.
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.
