Mr. Anthony ‘Tony’ Vieira is now former Vice-Chair of the Board of Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) having called it quits. Informing the public of his resignation, Vieira, in a recent letter to the media, said it took effect from 11th June 2022.
Citing a litany of reasons that informed his decision he stated that he has “seen the CEO of our biggest corporation telling untruths to his board, his President and the nation, for example there has been a lot of communication in the media about articulated tractors, as a member of the GuySuCo board I was unable to respond.”
Mr. Sasesnarine Singh is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GuySuCo. He is also infamously associated with denying sugar shortage even as consumers were seeing empty or sparse shelves and limited to purchase only one or two pounds in some instances. There was an instance where the former Vice-Chair and CEO had heated exchange about the management of the corporation which was recorded (see below).
Several letters were written to the media about the articulated tractors regarding suitability for Guyana and alleged wastage of funding. On seeking to source said tractors, Vieira informed, at first the CEO wanted to buy 22 and two members of the Board, with knowledge and understanding of the sugar industry, were against the very concept of replacing the John Deere fixed frame tractor with one whose only purpose is to pull trailers.
After objection by Board members the matter was taken to President Ali who instructed two be bought as a trial run, said Vieira, but one of the tractors has since broken down and GuySuCo is “now discovering that the machine is made up of a hodge-podge of parts from all over the world, making acquiring parts next to impossible [b]ut has recently decided to buy eight more!!”
Admitting the corporation has numerous problems, Vieira warned that these cannot be addressed with the current incompetent people managing the corporation and the morass of stupidity which is prevailing in the industry today. The Vieiras have deep rooted association in sugar having themselves cultivated large estates and produced the product in commercial quantities.
In the meanwhile, beleaguered GuySuCo continues to receive assurances of government spending and billions of dollars from the Treasury regardless. Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha assured sugar workers government will spend money on the corporation to ensure “sugar will be sweet again” because it has “lost its taste” due to rightsizing efforts of the A Partnership For National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government.
After two years of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic government, political campaign promises to reopen closed estate and make sugar viable remain just that, i.e., promises. GuySuCo is lowering its projection targets at estates to levels never before seen but still unable to meet them.
