Member of Parliament for the WIN party and former Executive Manager of GuySuCo, Vishnu Panday, has slammed the government over what he sees as the continued mismanagement of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO). He wants the Government to come clean on how money allocated to the entity has been spent.

In a letter to the press, Mr. Panday hammered the government over unrealistic yearly targets for sugar as well as financial concerns.

Panday’s response came days after the President sought to blame him for being part of the myriad of problems facing the sugar company.

Panday alleges that last year, the President directed GuySuCo to produce 100,000 tons of sugar in the year, despite having a budget for 73,000 tons in the face of adverse and prolonged drought which started in 2023 and ended April last year.

Additionally, he stated a “selected” contractor was paid $21 million upfront to import seed canes materials from Brazil, but only $5 million worth of materials arrived. He said the imported plant materials were disease ridden and were planted at Rose Hall Estate.

The former GuySuCo Executive said political interference continues to hurt the sugar industry.

“The CEO, a political appointee, oversaw the decline in sugar production from 88,000 tons in the year 2020 to 47,000 tons in the year 2022, a drop of 41,000 tons in the years 2021 and 2022. Production increased in the year 2023: 60,000 tons were made, that output was managed by me as the Agriculture Director – not the government,” Panday said.

He also accused the government of spending hundreds of millions of dollars on consultants from India and Cuba over the past two years, with no results.

He described the Government’s reopening of the Rose Hall estate as a “sham”, explaining that only a part of the Rose Hall estate was opened.

Originally, he said the estate’s cultivation was approximately 6,000 hectares, but only half of that has been under cultivation since the reopening.

“The President and his government boast of putting over $50 billion into the industry since he came into office, in addition during the same period sugar revenue would have brought in another $50 billion. The President must tell the country where and how the monies were managed. Give details on accountability, and how billions are owed to GPL, GWI, NIS, GRA, unions and endless suppliers, both locally and overseas,” Panday stated.

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