– Agriculture Minister Persaud
GUYANA Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) weekly paid workers, who did not receive their pay yesterday due to a financial problems currently affecting their employer, will get their money on Monday.

Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Robert Persaud, who has portfolio responsibility for the industry, made the announcement after being briefed by GuySuCo Chairman, Dr. Nanda Gopaul.

The Minister said Government is very concerned about the situation but ruled out the possibility of helping GuySuCo to deal with what he described as a temporary snag in cash flow.

Persaud said assistance from Government was not possible because of the way in which its accounting is done.

“There is no situation whereby GuySuCo can call on the Government to say: send over money, we do not have enough to meet our payroll. That is not how it operates. GuySuCo is a corporation; it is a business and it will have to find the resources,” he said.

Persaud added: “But I am and the Government, too, is very concerned that workers did not get their weekly pay. I understand that some of the workers are understanding in some regards but people not getting payment on time is an issue of serious concern.”

The Minister said the non-payment highlights the very precarious financial state of GUYSUCO and called on all stakeholders to recognise this and focus, very quickly, on preventing such problems and on how to improve the financial system and performance of the corporation.

GuySuCo, in a statement Thursday evening, advised that it is temporarily experiencing cash flow difficulties, due to a delay in sugar shipments.

It said the temporary cash shortfall has affected its ability to meet its wages bill for the current week and was working feverishly to make alternative arrangements, for ensuring workers are in receipt of their earnings at the earliest opportunity.

GuySuCo maintained that the situation was unavoidable due to external factors.

“The unions representing the workers have been previously apprised of this potential difficulty and we appreciate their understanding at this point in time,” the corporation said, taking the opportunity to remind of the financial difficulties it faces as it continues to embark on the implementation of its turnaround plan.

Minister Persaud said he has been informed that the delayed ship will be here on December 12 and the payments should be disbursed shortly after.

He said the Government was assured that the Chairman and members of the management team are working to address the situation.

“Government is assured that they are looking at ways in which they can secure financing by getting some of their payments up front, working with their bankers and, so on, just to make sure this temporary snag, in terms of cash flow, is dealt with early,” Persaud said.

He said, however, it does not mean that GuySuCo will be out of its financial woes as that might be a nagging problem from time to time.

“We hope that all stakeholders understand what the true situation is and work to prevent such problems and improve the performance of the corporation in its current state of financial crisis,” Persaud said.