Barama Company Limited has dispatched a letter to President Bharrat Jagdeo seeking clarification on His Excellency’s public pronouncement about revoking the company’s concessions should it not demonstrate that it is serious about restarting its plywood operations, which was shutdown because of a boiler accident. The shutdown of the plant rendered it necessary for Barama to send home all of the 247 employees. The President at a meeting on Monday at the Guyana International Conference Centre announced that laid off workers of Barama Company limited will receive a stipend of $25,000 per month for the next three months provided that they attend one day per week of computer training.
At the meeting, the President also expressed dissatisfaction about the timeline expressed by Barama for recommencing operations, saying that it had moved from 12 months to 20 months.
Speaking to this newspaper, Mohindra Chand, Barama’s Head of Corporate Affairs & Forest Planning, explained that the company had said that the plant will take at least 12 months to be running again. But he said that after evaluations by the manufacturer, the company is now expecting the restart to take longer than the 12 months.
He explained that the process includes the fabrication of the required components, their shipping, clearing, construction and commissioning, hence the extensive period required.