…tells Albion rally if elected
…..would look at finding jobs, assistance for former sugar workers

LEADER of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo on Sunday walked back on his talks about reopening the closed sugar estates, if the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is elected to government at the upcoming General and Regional Elections.
Jagdeo, during his remarks at the PPP/C rally at Albion, Berbice, on Sunday, said the PPP/C, if elected, will ensure that ex-sugar workers get back a job.

Government, as part of an effort to rekindle the sugar industry and return it to viability, had closed the Wales (West Bank Demerara), Enmore (East Demerara), Rose Hall and Skeldon (East Berbice) Sugar Estates. The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is currently using three estates for production – Blairmont and Albion in Berbice and Uitvlugt in West Demerara.

“I promise every sugar worker in this region, we will work until you get back a job or get assistance to get a job,” said Jagdeo as he addressed the Albion gathering.
Jagdeo’s remarks contradicted what he said last year, when he had announced that if the PPP/C wins the next elections, its members will find a way to reopen the estates.

“The PPP will find a way of reopening the estates that are closed so as to put people back to work. We will explore all forms of partnerships to get that done plus innovative financing and investments, so people can return to providing for their families,” said Jagdeo in a report last year.

In support of Jagdeo, PPP/C Presidential Candidate, Irfaan Ali, said the party will look at the “restoration” of jobs in the sugar industry.

“We will look at the creation of jobs and our focus in the creation of jobs will not only be the restoration of jobs in the sugar industry…It is important for us to address the issue of the creation of jobs…we want to ensure that our people here and all across Guyana have access to jobs; jobs that pay well and jobs that can sustain your families,” Ali said.

Ali, who is now speaking about job creation for ex-sugar workers, had also talked about reopening sugar estates, an idea which was condemned by veteran Trade Unionist, Lincoln Lewis.

Lewis had said that Ali ought not to be trusted. Lewis flayed the opposition for floundering opportunities during its time in office to reform the industry.

According to Lewis, Ali is attempting to assure society that the PPP/C has grand plans for the sugar industry when it was during the PPP/C administration that sugar’s fortune changed drastically, and it proved incapable of salvaging the industry. Lewis said presented with the opportunity to diversify and retool with financial support offered from the European Union, that government blew it.

The idea of reopening the estates was also rubbished by General Secretary of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Joseph Harmon. Harmon had said: “These promises in very many cases bear no semblance to reality. For the PPP now, in their manifesto, to say they would reopen the sugar estates, I would like to know on what information basis they are going to do that.”

“This blank statement that we will reopen sugar estates, when you examine it, when you go into the details you will see how fake this promise is. And it is not something that any right thinking Guyanese can take on face value,” said Harmon.

Tearing into the issue further, Harmon questioned how the PPP could revive the industry given their stellar record of mismanagement, decline and unaccountability in the industry across the 23 years they oversaw it.

Skeldon Factory
But though it has been found that the Sugar Industry was haemorrhaging Guyana’s coffers, former PPP/C Member of Parliament, Vickram Bharrat, told PPP/C supporters that the closure of the Skeldon Sugar Estate was a “political decision.”

In 2015, when the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Government came into office, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) had amassed a debt of more than $82 billion. The government continued efforts to ‘bailout’ the industry, but in 2017, a State Paper on Sugar was presented, which sought to highlight the need to modernise, contract and diversify the sector.

Bharrat, at the rally, said, “Closing (the Skeldon) factory was a political decision because the co-generation plant at Skeldon was producing $7.5B a year, enough to keep the estate alive.”

The Skeldon Estate was commissioned by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government, with an estimated US$200M spent on a new factory and bigger fields, but it failed to kick-start the industry. A co-generation plant was also commissioned back in 2009 as part of the Skeldon Sugar Modernisation Project, and was expected to supply energy to the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) company.

That co-generation plant was hived off by the government in 2015 to the state-owned company, Skeldon Energy Inc (SEI). The estate was, however, closed by the end of 2017, as the government set out to restructure the industry.

In a surprise visit in 2019 to the Albion Estate, in Berbice, President Granger reassured that it was not his government’s intention to ‘close down’ the sugar industry.

President Granger explained that his government was merely restructuring the industry to respond to external and internal changes, and so that the industry could be revived not only in a sustainable manner, but also to become profitable once more.

In presenting the 2018 Budget to the National Assembly, Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan said government’s intensified focus on diversification and value-added production in the non-sugar agriculture sector has become absolutely critical at this point as the sugar industry continues to undergo restructuring.

According to Minister Jordan, the Special Purposes Unit (SPU) in 2018 was tasked with examining and articulating the way forward with respect to the divestment of the Skeldon, Rose Hall, and East Demerara estates.

“Our taxpayers must no longer be burdened to carry the weight of an unprofitable, inefficient, and antiquated public corporation. The government has allocated $6.3B, in 2018, to support the reduced operations of GuySuCo,” the minister said. Minister Jordan had said government intends to uphold its duty to the communities and families in the areas affected by divestment, as part of the GuySuCo restructuring.