PROMINENT stakeholders in the rice industry have chastised the former Administration for failing to alert participants that a cancellation of the rice for oil deal between Guyana and Venezuela was imminent.They did so even as they put their collective brain power together to find a way forward that will prevent the collapse of the industry and consequent hardship on farming families and others who earn a living from it.
After the news broke about the Venezuelan cancellation of the deal, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo Thursday disclosed that there was “documentary evidence” that Venezuela’s decision had been communicated to former Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett and Guyana’s Ambassador in Caracas, Geoffrey Da Silva prior to the cancellation.
He had said, “It is sad and inexcusable that the Guyanese people were not advised of this by the former PPP Government. Questions will now have to be asked as to whether the Guyanese people, and the thousands of rice farmers in particular who could be affected, were being held hostage by the PPP’s silence purely for the purposes of narrow politicking.”
Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan had also disclosed that the Venezuelans had communicated that they had told the former Administration that they will not be renewing the contract.
Commenting on the disclosures, Retired Chief Executive Officer of Alesie Rice Group, Dr. Turhane Doerga, said that during the recent campaign, senior officials of the former Administration had told farmers and millers that there was a more than enough market for rice, that payment was not a problem.
“They lied to us,” he said adding that he and other progressive stakeholders in the industry were calling on the former Administration to apologise for having done so, so blatantly.
Meanwhile, however, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic, in a statement on its Facebook page said that the statement by the Prime Minister that the PPP/C was aware of the imminent collapse of the deal and had failed to inform the Guyanese public was an “absurd accusation.”
The Party said that the responsibility for the collapse of the rice agreement lay squarely with the de facto Government and its “distorted diplomacy”.
The statement, it was noticed, however steered clear of explicitly, denying that the former Administration had foreknowledge of the imminent collapse of the rice for oil deal.

Doerga said yesterday that politics was secondary at this time: “All of us have to rescue the rice industry and Guyana from an economic crisis. All of us need to put our brains together to find a way out.”
In his statement on Thursday, Prime Minister Nagamootoo had said that the Government will fully explore all options to ensure that farmers and those dependent on Guyana’s rice industry are not adversely affected.

By Clifford Stanley