Dear Editor,
We are now told that the Special Purpose Unit would need between $10 billion and $15 billion to get Enmore and Skeldon estates back into operation.
The SPU would rehire some workers and produce a little sugar, but the ‘focus will be to produce more molasses’.
I am wondering if Minister Winston Jordan knows that molasses is a by-product of sugar! I had emphasized the fact, in a letter to the media, that this Government has no clue about what it is doing about GuySuCo, and this is more evidence galore.
But apart from the huge disparity of $5 billion in the estimate, it must be noted that, in an earlier statement, Agriculture Minister Noel Holder had said that the Government expended $16 billion on GuySuCo to get it going for 6 months, but now the Finance Minister is saying that $15 billion would be needed for a few months just to reopen a mere two estates at a minimum level of operation. Is this realistic? I am sure that figures are just being plucked from thin air!
After closing the estates, this minister is now saying, “We cannot keep them closed and moth-balled”. It is only now he has come to the realization that the buyers would be impressed only if the factories are working.
How can we expect to move forward as a nation when it has taken such a long time for the Finance Minister to learn such a basic lesson in financing and investment? This is the reason why many profitable Government entities, such as GUYOIL, are now deficit-makers. The ‘cut and paste’ mentality has its limitations!
The minister is also now saying that Enmore should be opened simply because the Government does not want DDL to import molasses when it can be produced locally. I will not ask why this was not considered before the decision to close, but I want Jordan to tell this nation how much profit the estate will make? Will this be a profitable venture for the taxpayers to finance? DDL has shown interest in purchasing the Estate, why not sell it to them now? Why create a further burden for the taxpayers? I am sure the entity would make a loss, which must be financed by taxpayers in addition to the huge loans and the accrued interests which have to be repaid.
However, the Finance Minister then began to daydream. He said the original model under GuySuCo was not cost-efficient, but the new SPU model would ‘pull them away from GuySuCo and make them more efficient, and the balance sheets (would) look better, in order to attract investors’. This man cannot be serious. If this Government can transform these entities into being ‘cost efficient’ and therefore profitable, then why sell them? The reason for selling is because they are not profitable and cost efficient, and are a burden to the taxpayers.
Why is this model not being used in the remaining estates, such as Albion and Blairmont, to make them cost-efficient and profitable? It must be recalled that only last crop these estates failed to achieve their targets!
Moreover, more than 80 investors, both local and foreign, have shown interest in buying these estates, and they are fully aware of the high production costs and recurring losses; therefore, there is no reason why they should not be sold as they are. Let the purchasers be the ones to incur the required costs to make the estates profitable. This Government is again making a wrong decision. What if, after expending $15 billion, the estates remain unprofitable?
We have many qualified and experienced professionals who could have done GuySuCo’s privatization process like a walk in the park, yet this Government continued to blunder almost on a daily basis. GuySuCo could have been sold a long time ago, but in my opinion some people are seeing yet another avenue to continue to milk GuySuCo dry as well as the treasury, for personal reasons.
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
RDC Councillor-
Region 6
