AGRICULTURE Minister Robert Persaud yesterday lashed out at Kaieteur News (KN), which has once again come under fire for disseminating what Persaud calls an embellishment of misinformation. Persaud was responding to a front page article published yesterday that was headlined ‘Cost of US$12.5M packaging plant questionable…’
The article reported that there are questions over the seemingly high cost of the recently commissioned US$12.5M ($2.5B) sugar packaging plant at Enmore. It referenced a column by Christopher Ram that said Kenya’s largest sugar company, Mumias Sugar Company (MSC), had recently built a packaging plant for US$3M.
Persaud stressed that the project has several components, including the packaging plant, and Ram failed to acknowledge this in making his comparison.
“This is public information and Kaieteur News is aware of this….the article is a blaring misrepresentation of the facts,” he said.
According to him, the components of the project are:
* Section 1 – Sugar Factory Process Design – US $72,000
* Section 2 – Civil Works Design – US $90,000
* Section 3 – Civil Works Construction – US $ 3.4
* Section 4 – Design Supply and Install Sugar Ware House – US $ 3M
* Section 5 – Design Supply and Install Sugar Packaging Machinery – US$2 M
* Section 6 – Design Supply and Install Sugar Process Equipment – US $4.1
Of these, sections three and six are related to the processing house upgrade of the factory.

EU APPROVED
The Agriculture Minister also pointed out that Project Gold is financed and fully approved by the European Union, whose demand for accountability and transparency is of a high standard.
He labelled this spouting of misinformation from the news outlet as a campaign to create mischief. “Report the facts,” Persaud stressed.
A clear case of this basic journalism principle, he said is the fact that the Kaieteur News article said the packaging machines were supplied by India, when it fact it was from Gainsborough Engineering Company of the United Kingdom, while the bailing machines were sourced from Raumak of Brazil.
Persaud maintained that this information is in the public domain and was also provided to the media at the commissioning ceremony through detailed presentations. In addition a detailed overview of the project and the statements from the construction company were circulated to the media houses.
He proffered the opinion that such misreporting is a clear bias, driven by obvious anti-government entities that seek to misrepresent the reality to distract from plans, such as the People’s National Congress Reform- One Guyana (PNCR-1 G) plans to privatize the sugar industry.

FACTS IGNORED
Additionally, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) in a statement, yesterday, noted that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Paul Bhim spoke to a reporter and the publisher of Kaieteur News prior to the article being published and supplied all the details of the project, none of which were reported.
The statement said: “The Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc. is extremely concerned by the irresponsible and partisan journalism of Kaieteur News and now being intellectually authored by anti government activist Christopher Ram, particularly as it relates to the just completed Project Gold at Enmore.”
It added that the several false allegations regarding this and the misleading article prior is both “baseless and malicious story” and is being viewed as part of an ongoing campaign to discredit the efforts to turn around the sugar industry.
“What are the facts about Project Gold that Kaieteur News refused to publish?” the statement questioned.
It made clear that not only was the project conceptualized as part of the sugar action plan that won support and funding from the European Union, but was also advertised internationally and locally through an open and competitive bidding process that saw Surendra Engineering Corporation of India emerging as the lowest and most competitive bidder.
Accordingly it is dishonest of Kaieteur News and of Mr. Christopher Ram to pick out one component and present it as the entire project.
“The web site referred to as providing information on the Kenyan project does not provide enough information for any comparative analysis. Yet this newspaper and its supposed intellectual author Christopher Ram omitted to mention this in their first report and now in today’s report,” the statement said.
The sugar company stressed that GuySuCo is of the view that there is some mischief afoot, a sentiment that objective stakeholders concur.