As the 2026 budget debates continue, Vishnu Panday, who previously held senior positions within the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), took to the National Assembly floor on Tuesday to criticise the performance of the sugar sector.
In a fiery rebuttal, Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha slammed the opposition parliamentarian, arguing that Panday, who is now a representative of the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), has no standing to critique the sector, given his own dismal track record at the state -owned sugar company.
“Panday was working under the PNC/R in GuySuCo and he worked under the PPP/Civic and he destroyed the Corporation. Mr. Speaker, the Honourable Member portrayed himself as the champion of accountability. But accountability begins with honesty…the Honourable Member was the Agriculture Director of GuySuCo and his performance was far below par,” Mustapha contended.
“Under his tenure, Mr Speaker, GuySuCo recorded the lowest production in the history of the Corporation, 6,700 tonnes. And Mr Speaker, if that is not all, because of his incompetence, because of his below par performance, the Honourable Member was dismissed from GuySuCo because of poor performance,” the minister added, as he displayed the letter before the House.
Mustapha noted that in another capacity as General Manager at the Skeldon Estate, “he was asked by the Corporation to craft a plan to reopen the Skeldon Estate. He failed.”
“He failed. And when he was asked to account for the plan, he resigned. Mr. Speaker, he resigned,” the minister recalled.
Mustapha added that “because of his below par performance, he received a letter from GuySuCo in December of 2024 informing him that his contract will not be renewed by the Corporation because he is ineffective and he is performing below par.”
“And he is coming here to lecture us.”
“And when his contract was not renewed, he said he wanted to take revenge and he went over to join an opposition party. That’s the man. That’s the man,” Mustapha asserted.
Notwithstanding, Mustapha assured that with the investments being made in the sector under the Dr Irfaan Ali-led administration, sugar will return to profitability by 2030.
Referring to Panday, he said “when the Honourable Member, when he was fired, when his contract was not renewed… sugar production increased by 26 percent.”
“The Albion Packaging Plan has begun operations. We have seen the land conversion level and mechanisation advance significantly since Mr. Pandey was removed from GuySuCo…at Skeldon, the 5,000 hectares that the Honourable Member mentioned is now being planted, when he was removed from GuySuCo because he failed to do it,” Mustapha said.
This year, $13.4 billion is allocated to GuySuCo. The sugar subsector is projected to expand by 67.9% in 2026, targeting 100,041 tonnes of production after a 26.5% expansion in 2025.
Overall, the agriculture sector has a $113.2 billion budget this year.
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