Latest update May 10th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 31, 2009 Editorial
The commissioning of the Skeldon Sugar Factory, asserted to be the single largest investment in the history of Guyana, has renewed the debate on the prospects for the future of the industry in Guyana.
There are those that maintain sugar is always going to be, at best, a marginally profitable industry and as such will never generate the wherewithal to lift the living standards of its workers from the subsistence level at which they have been stuck since the seventeenth century.
However, we have maintained that since the investment is a done deal, it behoves all of us – the industry, after all is owned “by the people of Guyana” – to put our shoulders to the wheel and help to insure that the faith that the administration has demonstrated in the industry, delivers results.
We agree with the President that for us, sugar – and not just the financial institutions as in the developed countries – is “too big to fail”. This perspective, however, only makes sense if all the stakeholders stop playing to the balcony and get serious.
There is the government. As the ones that establish the overarching policy for the industry and appoint a Board of Directors to oversee the implementation of that policy, can they – with a straight face – maintain that the present Board is the very best that we can muster to oversee “the largest investment that this country has ever made”?
Events in the developed countries have brought home the folly of having Boards that do not have the core competencies to realistically oversee the management of the corporations for which they are responsible. On the Board of GuySuCo, for instance, there is one individual that displayed the most callous disregard for the financial health of the company she was managing. What credibility can she bring to bear on the affairs in her new position that demands more than anything, solid fiduciary credentials?
Then there are the unions. This newspaper has always been steadfast in supporting the right of the workers to a fair and decent wage. However, workers have to also understand that they have as much stake in a viable GuySuCo as anyone else. If there are violations in either the contract or “custom and practice” by management, they will have to follow established procedures for the settlement of grievances.
We have suggested that workers representatives be appointed to the Board so that the input of these most vital stakeholders is channeled into the very top of the chain. In the meantime, we have to stop playacting and acknowledge that members of the union have informal but strong access to the Board and that these lines of communication be utilised whenever there are grievances from the bottom.
There are also the private cane farmers. The government has actually placed the onus on this group for the ultimate success or failure of the Skeldon expansion by expecting them to supply some 30% of the sugar-cane needs of the new factory.
The government has moved mountains to assist these farmers to fulfil their obligations but they just have not risen to the bar. A decision will have to be made soon as to whether we can continue to place all our eggs in the farmers’ basket. Maybe the novelty is too much for them. In the meantime, the traditional cane-farmers on the East Coast should be assisted to return to the land.
Finally, there is the management team. We can have all the best policies and new factories but if these are not deployed in the most proficient manner, all is for nought.
GuySuCo’s management of recent has been given great leeway in generating greater profitability through the contracting out of many aspects of their operations. Up to now, the expected savings have not been realised and there has been much speculation that corruption has been the cause. Internal systems must be monitored that the company is getting the bang for the buck expended to contractors.
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