A large quantity of sugar that was supposed to have been packaged and shipped out of the Uitvlugt Sugar Estate/Factory, West Coast Demerara has reportedly gone missing, and one of the senior managers attached to the estate may soon be sent packing.
A source close to the sugar industry told Inews that this development came to light recently when the first crop for 2019 ended and an audit was conducted to determine the performance of the workers and the output of that estate and factory.
“I heard that there is a racket going on there, and was advised that a certain manager was fingered and someone told me he requested early retirement. They (Uitvlugt Sugar Estate) were not accounting for the right amount of sugar, and had been declaring less,” the source stated.
Some 55lb bags of sugar were being documented as 100lb bags and sent out of the facility, and this means that the customers who would have purchased those bags were actually robbed. Inews understands that the missing sugar could amount to 3000 pounds.
“When they did an audit, molasses-to-sugar ratio — there is a way to calculate it, a scientific way to calculate — they found that they have more molasses. There is a ratio: for every unit of sugar, there should be some molasses,” the source stated.
According to the source, employees of the sugar estate related that they had been told to “throw away” the excess molasses, so that no traces of the act could be found. Attempts on Thursday to contact the manager and senior officials attached to the sugar estate, as well as GuySuCo management for a comment on the matter, have proved futile.
In December last, the Uitvlugt Sugar Estate, along with those at Albion and Blairmont, had achieved in excess of their target production for the year 2018. This led to a number of qualified employees receiving bonuses for last year as a reward for their performances.
The workers, along with the management teams at the three locations, were urged to continue along this path, but with declarations of lower output at the Uitvlugt Sugar Estate thus far for 2019, this means that the workers who would have benefited from weekly incentives during that period would not have received them.
