In a presentation that was punctuated by loud and repeated heckling from the Government benches, Member of Parliament for the WIN party and former GuySuCo Executive, Vishnu Panday, slammed both the People’s National Congress and the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic for the current state of the sugar industry.
In contributing to the Budget Debates, Panday dived into the history of the Sugar Industry, and its struggle for survival.
Panday told the House that prior to nationalization, the sugar Industry produced 362,000 tonnes of sugar. The industry was nationalized by 1976, and according to MP Panday, by 1990, production reached an all time low of just 90,000 tonnes of sugar.
He said the destruction of the sugar Industry did not stop there, explaining that following the takeover of Booker Tate in 1990, the sugar Industry rebounded with production increasing to 331,000 tonnes of sugar. However, the WIN MP said once the PPP/C took over the management of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), sugar production fell again.
“Like the PNCR, the PPP took over the industry; they flooded the industry with party loyalists. And from that 331,000 tonnes of sugar produced, you know where we are Mr. Speaker, in 2020, it produced 88,000 tonnes. In 2021, 58,000 tonnes were produced, 30,000 tones dropped immediately. And if that was not disgraceful, in the year 2022, it produced 47,000 tonnes of sugar,” the WIN MP said.
He said it was not until his return to the Guyana Sugar Corporation that production went up in 2023 to 60,000 tonnes.
Panday said since then, the industry has experienced “real devastation” at the hands of the PPP/C Government. He accused the Government of hiring party loyalists, who he said continue to mismanage the industry and waste tax payers’ dollars.
“People who never run a cake shop were placed to run the most complex industry not only in Guyana but in the entire Caribbean. The writing is on the wall when that happens. When you place people not with merit, the end result is utter destruction…In 2022 GuySuCo purchased a drone that up to 2026, to date, it has never arrived, millions was spent. GuySuCo purchased something that we call French cutters, it is a mechanical harvester that never cut canes to produce one ton of sugar,” the WIN MP told the House.
But the Minister of Agriculture did not allow MP Panday’s comments to slide. Firing back, Minister Mustapha said there was the “Panday Syndrome” that existed at GuySuCo.
“I want to thank the Honorable Member Vishnu Panday for saying that the APNU, PNC, plus the PPP/C destroyed the industry but there was one common factor – the Panday syndrome, the Panday symdrome. Panday was working under the PNCR in GuySuCo and he worked under the PPP/C and he destroyed the Corporation,” the Agriculture Minister told the House.
He said while MP Panday portrayed himself as the champion of accountability, he must be honest about his time at the Sugar Corporation.
“The Honorable Member was the Agriculture Director of GuySuCo and his performance was below par. Under his tenure, under his tenure Mr. Speaker, GuySuCo recorded the lowest production in the history of the Corporation – 6,700 tonnes and Mr. Speaker if that is not all because of his incompetence, because of his below par performance, the Honorable Minister was dismissed from GuySuCo. This is his dismissal letter,” the Agriculture Minister said as he stood waving a document.
But jumping to his feet on a point of order, MP Panday told the Speaker that he was never dismissed from the Sugar Corporation.
While initially maintaining that the MP was dismissed, Minister Mustapha later told the House that MP Panday’s contract was not renewed by the Corporation in 2024.
The Agriculture Minister said notwithstanding the critics, sugar production in 2025 increased by 26%, although the production target was still not met.
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