LABOUR Minister Joseph Hamilton has come out swinging against naysayers who have called the usefulness of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) for the Linden Utility Services Co-operative Society Limited (LUSCSL) into question.

In a recent interview, Minister Hamilton was asked to respond to claims that the co-operative society in question has not been functioning properly and is also not making a profit.
“In six months” Minister Hamilton said, “the IMC has rescued the Co-op Society from nearly bankruptcy [and brought it] to profitability.” He said the evidence of that progress is present. He accused the previous leadership of the entity of mismanagement for close to a decade.

Hamilton said he makes no apologies for any one of the interventions to save the utility company, and underscored that there is no way that either he or the Government of Guyana will allow the community to be plunged into darkness.

He bemoaned that there is a current $11 million judgement against the company which could not have been honoured by previous management.
Additionally, the Labour Minister said the utility company could not even honour rates and taxes owed to the Linden Town Council.