No chance of GuySuCo receiving parliamentary support for future requests for funds – Greenidge

“It is the ultimate stupidity to recycle persons whose claim to fame is failure and poor performance,” Vieira

In spite of poor performance, past members of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) board have been reinstated. And to the shock of some opposition members, appointed as Chairman of the Board was Shaik Baksh, the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Water Inc. Critics say that this move only creates more worry rather than to revive citizen’s confidence in government’s decision making process and promise to uphold transparency and accountability.

Anthony Vieira, Agriculture consultant to the APNU

One such critic is the A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Shadow Minster of Finance, Carl Greenidge. Greenidge is of the firm belief that GuySuCo now needs a Board whose members have been carefully selected with the personal integrity to be able to avoid financial conflicts of interest. These new members he said should be persons who collectively bring expertise in large scale labour management, familiarity with best practices as regards self assessment as well as goal setting and performance assessment for management. Greenidge doubts that the Board’s new chief and old members will do much, if anything, to improve the company’s performance. He said that if one seriously considers the poor performance of the past members and the ‘questionable’ history of its new Chairman, then the supposedly new team can in no way be seen as credible enough to ensure the revival of the ailing state-owned company. The politician insisted that GuySuCo’s performance would not improve without drastic change. The development plan for 2014-2017, he said, will have to be drastically revisited by the new Board because it is already redundant. While he fully agrees with calls for restructuring the Board and for professional management of the entity, Greenidge said that the absence of a workers’ representative would be unfortunate given the circumstances in which the company is currently placed. Of all the unions in the Caribbean, the parliamentarian said that the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) has a record of being the most militant in the pursuit of political and labour ends. He said that it is ironic then, that a political party whose battles they have so often fought could have brought the industry to the sorry state and could have engineered a Board without a single worker representative. “In the 1980s, GuySuCo employees elected workers’ representatives and they had representation on the Board of Directors. Their absence from the Board at this stage would not help the company and one hopes that the PPP and the Government recognize the errors of their ways before it is too late,” Greenidge asserted. Another injustice he cited was the fact that Government is supposed to invite and appoint to the State Boards and Committees, Opposition members. But Government has failed to comply with this. One such example he highlighted was the fact that since 1999, the Government refused to appoint the Opposition’s nominee to the GuySuCo Board, Anthony Vieira a former People’s National Congress Reform Parliamentarian.

Carl Greenidge, APNU Shadow Minister of Finance

He added, “Can this Board make a difference? More importantly, is the President’s proposal a serious one? These State boards are seen by the PPP as a refuge or sinecures for loyal servants. Some have had to be moved from elsewhere as a result of unsatisfactory or embarrassing performance. Thus, the most obvious characteristic feature of the membership is that almost to a man/woman it reflects the re-cycling of cronies.” Greenidge said that obviously the PPP regime has no intention of tackling the main reasons for the GuySuCo crisis. The President, he reminded, undertook to appoint a Board that is professional, competent and charged ultimately with improving the financial situation of the company but he has not done so. “In the light of this and indeed of all the foregoing, the PPP Government should harbor no illusions about the likelihood of Parliamentary support of future requests for funds for Guysuco,” The Parliamentarian expressed. In sharing brief remarks on the subject matter, Vieira said that he agrees implicitly with Greenidge. “These people seem to be chosen to spearhead GuySuCo into the unknown, since we don’t exactly know where they are going… It is the ultimate stupidity …recycling persons whose claim to fame is failure and poor performance and not one with any experience in sugar… It is a shocking display of total contempt for the taxpayers of this country who may in the end have to carry this basket case industry in perpetuity with their taxes,” The sugar expert asserted. He added, “How dare they, given the dire situation of this Corporation, put such a patently unqualified pack of misfits to navigate GuySuCo out of the calamitous situation it finds itself today?” The decision on the re-appointment of certain Board members and that of its Chairman moved Vieira to assert that it certainly does not fill one with any confidence that they can bring about any improvement to the performance of the corporation.