Lack of leadership, policy direction ends in financial woes in agri sector – Minister

Since taking office last week and meeting with various agency Heads, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha has discovered a disturbing trend. Almost every agency under his ministerial portfolio is drowning in financial troubles.

This Minister made this disturbing revelation during an exclusive interview with this publication on Monday. Naturally, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is one of the agencies Mustapha found to be experiencing financial difficulties.
However, Mustapha explained that other agencies like the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) and the National Drainage and Irrigation Agency (NDIA) are also in financial trouble, while he described the situation at the Hope Coconut Estate as a crisis. He made it clear that the mismanagement of these entities can be traced back to his predecessor, former Agriculture Minister Noel Holder.
“Since I came here, I have had meetings with agency Heads. I want to say the finances for these agencies are not healthy. There are many agencies that are in crisis, in deficit. And this came about because there was no direction given to the Ministry. And I think the former Minister should have given the Ministry staff the direction they needed,” he said.

“GuySuCo is in a serious financial crisis. The Hope Coconut Estate is in a crisis. You have NDIA with money outstanding, liabilities. GRDB has serious financial problems. Almost all the agencies that fall under the Ministry have financial difficulties,” the Minister explained.
Mustapha noted that he inherited a Ministry where an ad hoc approach was taken to dealing with the agriculture sector under Holder. Mustapha said that policy guidance from Holder, who has kept an extremely low profile since last year, was completely lacking and they are now reaping the rewards.
“Since I came here, what I found is that this Ministry lacked leadership. There was no leadership and direction given to this Ministry. And it seemed as though everyone was just doing what they thought was right,” Mustapha said.
“So, if you’re a programme Head and you are responsible for D&I, if you think this will enhance D&I, you do it. There was no policy guideline and guidance to give to programme Heads. There was no cohesive policy.”
The Agriculture Ministry has come in for much criticism over the past few years, from its lack of representation on behalf of landowners who had their leases revoked by Mahaica Mahaicony Abary-Agricultural Development Authority (MMA-ADA) to consistently owing rice millers.
There have even been cases whereby rice was shipped to overseas markets but was rejected at the port due to bad quality. In this case, the GRDB was heavily criticised for poor quality inspection.
But the Government has by far taken the most blame in agriculture for its mismanagement of the sugar industry and GuySuCo. Under Holder, GuySuCo has for some time been in major financial difficulties.
Chairman of GuySuCo’s Board, John Dow was forced to write to the former APNU/AFC Government back in May of this year to plead for executive assistance. Dow told then President David Granger that “….GuySuCo needs funds now to be able to survive after the second week June 2020”.
After former Finance Minister Winston Jordan told GuySuCo that the Administration could not afford to intervene given the prevailing financial troubles, the former Government eventually buckled down, and through the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) transferred $250 million.
With Holder as Agriculture Minister, the APNU/AFC had closed the Rose Hall, Skeldon, Wales and Enmore sugar estates, putting thousands of sugar workers on the breadline while citing a plan to return sugar to viability. This strategy failed drastically, with GuySuCo consistently missing production targets and bleeding money.
As recently as June, it was announced that GuySuCo missed its first crop target for 2020 by almost 9500 tonnes. None of the three sugar estates left standing after the APNU/AFC closures reached their targets. (G3)