Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo is calling on Government to pay close attention to the ongoing feud between the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and NICIL’s Special Purpose Unit (SPU), noting that the two state agencies have “damning” issues that need to be fixed.
Jagdeo’s comment comes on the heels of a recent visit to the Albion Estate in Berbice by President David Granger, who told residents and workers that he was there to fix things.
“…I am not here to bury the sugar industry. I am here to find out what your problems are. I have come to fix things…,” the President was quoted saying in a lengthy statement from the Ministry of the Presidency last week.
However, Jagdeo posited that the Head of State first needs to fix the issues between GuySuCo and the NICIL-owned SPU, which are being played out in the public.
“He went there to fix things… [But] he can’t fix the relationship between GuySuCo and NICIL – two state entities – and all it takes for him to do is to call them in his office and say cut out this nonsense, I want to see where the money is being spent. That’s all it requires [but] he has to go to Albion to tell people that he’s fixing things,” Jagdeo contended.
In a statement on Wednesday, the sugar corporation accused the SPU, which was set up by NICIL to oversee the divestment of GuySuCo’s assets, of unprofessionalism and criticised its approach to divestment.
According to the Opposition Leader, the strongly worded missive from GuySuCo is damning.
“A state agency accusing the SPU of undermining privatisation, of engaging in illegal acts, of recruiting the consultant to do the valuation [of GuySuCo’s assets] on the basis of a personal relation. That is the valuation that Guyana now must accept in the privatisation process [when] GuySuCo itself has grave concerns on how the consultant [PricewaterhouseCoopers] was recruited,” he noted.
