The Board of Directors at the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is yet to be appointed even though the life of the old one expired a month ago. Exacerbating the situation is the confusion which is currently surrounding the appointment of Directors for the said Board.
In late April, Minister Holder revealed that Cabinet was looking at some new names for the new Board.
Two weeks later, NICIL published the names of the new Board, naming the Head of the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) Heath-London as Chairman while the other members included Fritz McLean, Komal Singh, Verna Adrian, Vishnu Panday, Annette Arjoon, Arianne Mc Lean, Roshan Khan Jr and George Jervis, with two other names to be added to the 11-member body. A full-page ad had detailed that the new Board was approved by Cabinet on February 26, 2018.
Minister of State Joseph Harmon had said the same day that there were some issues with regard to the timing of the ad and Cabinet was reviewing the matter.
But despite these statements, Government had made it clear that the Board of Directors of GuySuCo, headed by Professor Clive Thomas, is the legitimate one. The life of that Board expired a month ago. The new Board, which was named with Heath-London as the head was gazetted at the Deeds and Commercial Registry.
According to filings on March 1, 2018, there were several documents including a copy of the Cabinet decision of the new Board, notice of change of Directors and consent forms to be Directors. There were also supporting documents that listed the members of the new Board as the same.
When questioned on the appointment of the new Board, acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GuySuCo, Paul Bhim told this media group that GuySuCo is still operating without a Board.
The GuySuCo official said while he was recently told by the Government that a Board will be named shortly, he was not given any specific time when this could happen.
“There is no Board at the moment. They have indicated that a Board will be named. They didn’t give me a timeline, but they did indicate that a Board would be appointed shortly,” he said.
