Following a high-level engagement between the Government, sugar unions and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Opposition to consider plans of the Government for the beleaguered sugar industry, the Board and Executives of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) are scheduled to meet with the Economic Services Committee (ESC) of Parliament. This is an event that is long overdue. 
The ESC is one of the four Parliamentary Sectoral Committees formed pursuant to Constitutional and institutional changes in governance structures after 2000, precipitated by violent protests of the People’s National Congress. They claimed they were made ineffectual by the workings of the extant governmental system, and the Committees were designed to expand the powers of Parliament by allowing the Opposition to “scrutinise” the workings of government in real time.
At any time, the Opposition controls two of the four rotating chairmanship of these Sectoral Committees, which can summon any Government official or managers of governmental corporations to review their actions. In the instance of GuySuCo, it is more than passing strange that the Board and the Management of the Corporation had not being grilled almost continuously after it was revealed Wales was going to be closed.
Be as it may, better late than never. The Opposition must now test the effectiveness of the purported expansion of their parliamentary powers via the Sectoral Committees. The Government has only very slowly and grudgingly allowed some details have been trickling out – as in the above mentioned engagement – and these do not paint a pleasant picture. The ESC must make this picture much clearer. As representatives of the people, they must represent the interests of the people who will be affected by the Government’s unilaterally formulated plans.
The most pressing matter concerns Wales where there is a tragedy of gargantuan proportions brewing. There are any number of questions that must be answered, one being since private farmers have shown that more than eight ratoons could be harvested with proper husbandry practices, and their yield is higher than that of the “estate canes”, why was the land not transferred to the workers of Wales to produce canes as private farmers and make Wales viable?
Another question concerns cane from the private farmers that were supposed to be transported to Uitvlugt via a billion-dollar road that was going to be built. What is the status of this road now that Wales factory has ceased processing cane? Will the farmers be compensated for the loss they will definitely suffer in the coming crop?
Then there is the fate of the fourteen thousand acres of land that have being taken out of cane cultivation. The Guyanese people were told baldly the land will be “diversified” into other agricultural products, including rice. Were studies undertaken to justify this move? Take rice, for instance. Several observers have pointed to the sobering experience of cultivating rice in a plantation setting at Blairmont, leading to the abandonment of the project. Exactly what will be done to ensure Wales does not suffer the same fate?
There is also talk about Skeldon Estate being completely privatised in the near term, consolidating Berbice sugar production at Albion. If the initial rationale for Skeldon’s modernisation was on account of its most suitable extensive clay soils, longer periods of sunshine for ripening canes, and a good source of irrigation water, why give up on it when a private entity is willing to step in? Has a proper valuation of Skeldon been conducted by an independent firm? If the Government intended to privatise Skeldon, why did the Chairman of the Board issue some very unflattering assessments of the condition of the factory? Surely this was not in consonance with his fiduciary duty to GuySuCo to do nothing that would lower its value.
The ESC can show that Parliament is not just a rubber stamp by sharing its independent findings with the Guyanese people so that they can make an informed decision on the performance of the Government they elected to overlook their interests.
