Persaud awaiting independent findings before submitting report to PresidentMinister of Agriculture Robert Persaud is awaiting a report from experts on the state of the blown Barama plywood plant boiler and the timeframe given for restarting operations. Further, he said there will be discussions between the company and the Guyana Forestry Commission on issues of timetable and the other activities and based on those interactions, a report will be submitted to the President on how Government will proceed with the company.

“We are hoping that the company would demonstrate a practical and realistic timetable in getting its plywood operations back up…at the end of that exercise, then we will be able to make some further determinations,” he said.
The Minister said the company had written the Ministry on October 26 outlining its latest position. The company gave a timetable for the repairs in the neighbourhood of 20 months, the least being 12 months.
The company has written the President seeking clarification on his pronouncements on Monday about the company possibly losing its tax concessions if it does not recommence its operations quickly.
Persaud said that Guyana Furniture Manufacturing and A. Mazaharally and Sons, through the Guyana Forestry Commission, are looking at the skills availability and their skills need, and are trying to match those. He said that Guysuco is looking to absorb another 70 of the laid-off Barama workers. “We’ve even written to the mining sector too…the aim is to get these people working and the aim is also to have plywood manufacturing resume very soon because the construction industry could be affected and it’s also a significant export revenue earner,” the Minister said.
Persaud said that this occasion could be an opportunity for Government to look at the other operations of the company through a total review of the operations, “and certainly in the dialogue that we will continue to have with management and the owners, it will certainly tell us as to some of the perspectives of the company and some of the future plans.”
President Bharrat Jagdeo on Monday outlined that Government will offer to the laid-off workers a stipend at $25,000 per month for three months, on the condition that each worker attend computer classes one day a week.