Dear Editor,

VISHNU Panday is an asset at GuySuCo. The company should do all it can to keep him as a manager of Skeldon Estate or even promote him in management. Everyone I interacted with feels his skills, experience, and expertise in the sugar industry should be exploited for the benefit of the industry. He knows sugar more than others. In fact, it would be better if Mr. Panday were elevated at some high-level position in central management at GuySuCo, perhaps Deputy CEO with specific responsibilities.  He is competent and experienced in so many areas of production that he would fit in at virtually any level of the hierarchical chain of the organisation. Sugar or GuySuCo cannot fail. So many jobs depend on it. It contributed significantly to the growth and development of the country and still play a leading role. I travelled around sugar estate communities.  I observe the suffering of the people and how they were impoverished by the Coalition regime. I grieve for the people living in the abandoned sugar estates; they were left to fend for themselves by thousands with no jobs. I would very much like to see sugar succeed in Guyana so that depressed communities can be rehabilitated. I am no sugar expert although I studied the role of sugar in development in several countries.

I may very well be the only Guyanese who travelled to and studied sugar production in Trinidad, Fiji, Mauritius, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Durban and how Indian companies produce sugar at high returns of profit in remote parts of Africa. (Guyanese scholar Prof. Paulette Pearce wrote an excellent book on sugar management at Bookers/GuySuCo about two decades ago. Paulette and I had the same mentor for our doctoral studies. The book should be read by those working in GuySuCo management and ownership). Production costs can be brought down in Guyana well below costs. It requires down-to-earth management all the way at the field level and empowerment of workers as their own land tillers. If given ownership, these labourers would transform the entire sugar industry. GuySuCo is also reeks of theft of all kinds from labour to materials. Guyana sugar production costs is top heavy in management and capital expenditure with smaller expenditures on lower level labour who performed slave like work to actually produce the sugar. Cane does not grow in an office.

Too many lives depend on sugar. It can succeed with able, competent, experienced management like Mr. Panday. I visited Skeldon in November and again earlier this month interacting with sugar workers about his leadership skills. Besides the hundreds currently employed at Skeldon, over a thousand more are seeking employment. Success at Skeldon will result in their employment. The workers love him and are disturbed that he is leaving. They are in the dark why he is leaving. They say he is an effective leader, a people’s person, very hard working, assertive, trustworthy, competent and confident of himself. Regrettably, I could not interact with Mr. Panday on sugar production on his expertise and short term as well as long-term plan for Skeldon. But former colleagues and peers spoke highly of him. I conversed with former personnel of GuySuCo and ex-board members on the imminent departure of Panday as manager of Skeldon. They all are in agreement that he should not be let go; there is no equivalent replacement for him.

Mr. Panday is perhaps the most experienced and knowledgeable person about sugar production currently at GuySuCo. He probably has more years in sugar than all the others in management and the board combined. If I am not mistaken, I believe he previously served in management and at a time when sugar was very profitable.
I have not had an opportunity to interact with Panday on challenges at Skeldon or working with the new board and GuySuCo management or on his economic model to transform Skeldon. But as his staff attested, he has been an effective manager for the five months he has headed Skeldon although sources tell me his hands have been tied by the board and central. Those who worked with him in management endorsed his professionalism and skills in the industry. They note he has an eye for detail, is organised, has excellent problem-solving skills, motivates and inspires staff, and is results-oriented. He has skills and competence to prepare a budget for the entire industry. He does not feel threatened by peers and subordinates. He motivates workers and builds trust and relationship with them. GuySuCo must retain Panday utilising his expertise to increase cultivation, productivity, and expansion of markets, and to manufacture new products as well value-added packaging that fetch more money.

Yours truly,
Dr. Vishnu Bisram