Despite Government’s recent announcement that $17M in bonds have been successfully secured for the recapitalization of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), Opposition Leader, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has indicated that there are still several questions left unanswered especially as it relates to the Corporation’s liabilities and the privatization of the remaining estates.
According to Jadgeo, while it is publicly believed that only the shares of the four closed sugar estates were transferred to NICIL, it is actually 100 per cent of Government shares in GuySuCo that has been transferred.
As such, the Opposition Leader asserted that there is a “massive confusion” as to who owns GuySuCo’s liabilities.
“You have $32B of unfunded pension liabilities, that is where the workers will get their pension from in the future. Who is going to assume that responsibility?” he questioned.
Jagdeo posited that this needs to be urgently clarified by the Government especially as it relates to the murky arrangement regarding the transfer of assets of GuySuCo to the NICIL.
“…and then they talk about privitisation but there are so many policy issues that you have to deal with before you could even talk about privitisation,” he noted.
Moreover, the Opposition Leader further questioned who will take up the responsibility for drainage and irrigation on the private estates, and what tax regime those estates will receive?
The former head of state also said that he is not confident that that the $17B will be properly spent and at the end Guyanese taxpayers would be left with the heavy burden to foot GuySuCo bills.
In a worst case scenario, the banks could seize all assets.
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