Embattled estate manager was spoken to about behaviour, says Armogan
Region Six Chairman, Mr. David Armogan, has said that embattled Skeldon Estate Manager, Dev Kumar, was
David Armogan
spoken to by his Administration in Region Six about his poor behaviour. Now he believes Kumar has regretted his horrible behaviours’. Armogan was addressing the issue as well as the poor performance of the Skeldon Sugar Factory during the last crop at his annual Press Conference at the Boardroom of the Berbice Regional Health Authority (BRHA), Fort Canje, Berbice. “I think he (Kumar) has regretted to some extent, those incidents,” Armogan added. “I don’t know if people are targeting him, but he has been in the news for quite some time for behaviour that is not worthwhile,” he added. Armogan said that the Region Six Administration as well as officials of Central Government spoke to the errant manager. Kumar is currently on leave overseas, as is customary for Estate Managers during the out-of-crop period. “He would normally go on leave at the end of the crop—most of these managers would go on leave during the out-of-crop periods,” he added. Kumar, last November, was arrested by a police patrol on the Corriverton Public road while he was urinating in the centre of the thoroughfare. According to a reliable source, Kumar and some other senior Managers were at the Grill Night Spot at Corriverton and got into some altercations. The man left the night club, boarded the estate vehicle PPP 6414 along with the Agriculture Manager and proceeded to drive along the road. He stopped a few doors from the Republic Bank at Corriverton and urinated in the middle of the road. When he was rebuked he became abusive. Then in December, he was arrested and locked up after he openly abused and challenged, chucked and threatened the police officers who had intervened. The police were conducting patrols in the Corriverton area. Kumar, who was reportedly in a drunken state, was being driven in a Guysuco vehicle when it was stopped by ranks on patrol. The Manager immediately became abusive. Also in December, Kumar was accused of accosting a female bar owner and hurling abuses at businessmen during a drunken rage at Rita’s Shop, at Number 78 Village, Corriverton. Kumar, who was clearly inebriated, reportedly came in and became incensed when he saw the bar owner hanging out with the group. Using a series of expletives, he reportedly went over to the money-changer and accosted him. He was warned to behave. Armogan said that he does not believe the poor performance of Skeldon Estate is as a result of the errant manager. “But I know there was a strike at Skeldon Estate as a result of the altercation between the Manager and a worker , and that too might have led to the underproduction because it was prolonged for a week,” he added. Kumar was spoken to, he added. “He did say that some of the things that were said were as a result of people trying to get at him.” Skeldon’s poor performance Skeldon sugar factory again, recorded one of the worst performances of all the four Berbice estates. Skeldon, the newest factory in the country was only commissioned in 2009. It fell behind the target by 5,449 tonnes, closing with 21,813 tonnes for the second crop. However, it used cane that would have produced more than twice that volume of sugar. Armogan said that in normal circumstances it would take 12 tonnes of cane to make one tonne of sugar. “In the case of Skeldon Estate, it took sometimes 20 tonnes of cane to make one tonne of sugar, so they had some serious problems in regard to extractions and factory problems—mechanical problems.” Albion was the estate with the highest production surpassing the target of 33,516 tonnes by some 681 tonnes. He added that he does not believe it is a problem of low production of canes, “because if you take the same amount of cane and give it to Albion (Estate), you probably would have made more sugar, because Albion (Estate) TCTS average has been about 11.5 to 12, whereas in Skeldon (Estate), it is about 15 and 20.” Even Rose Hall did better, recording 22,214 tonnes, or 808 tonnes above the target set for this last crop of the year. Blairmont also surpassed its target of 20,560 tonnes, ending the crop with 22,723 tonnes. The Regional Chairman stated that inasmuch as Skeldon utilized more cane, it has not been able to make the predicted amounts of sugar, he added. This is simply because of the high Tonne of Cane per Tonne of Sugar (TCTS), “and poor extraction—it takes so much cane to make so much sugar.”
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Spoken to...while sugar is failing.
His ass should be kicked in the Corentyne river.
