8 NEWS THURSDAY, JULY 2, 2020
| GUYANATIMESGY.COM
GuySuCo gets $250M from NICIL
T
he cash-strapped Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) was given a lifeline on Wednesday when the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) credited its account with a bailout of $250 million. This comes weeks after GuySuCo announced that it did not have money to meet its basic expenditure and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) expressing fear that the lack of funds may bring operations to a halt. GuySuCo’s Board Chairman, John Dow relayed the company’s woes to caretaker President David Granger via a letter in May. He indicated that the Corporation had only received just about $9.7 billion of the promised $30 billion that was secured for the industry by the Government-run NICILSpecial Purpose Unit (SPU). The letter also outlined that GuySuCo did not have the necessary cash to meet basic expenditure such as salaries, maintenance, and bare essentials. It further revealed that it was also $2.1 billion in debt without any sign of funding in the near future. Compounding the situation, according to Dow, is the backlog of some $21 billion owed to GuySuCo’s creditors. Elaborating on the sugar industry’s predicament, Dow notified Granger that it was unlikely that the company’s creditors would extend the facility further and “our inability to pay creditors in time has resulted in many of our most experienced contractors being unwilling to tender for GuySuCo projects”. However, one day later, Finance Minister Winston Jordan informed that the Treasury was too broke to provide any immediate assistance.
To judge or not to judge…
Y
According to Jordan, “the prevailing national circumstances, coupled with the challenges of COVID-19 and a reduced national income, render the Treasury incapable of providing a bailout to GuySuCo”. However, Jordan’s comments were highly criticised by GAWU and the Guyanese populace at large, who all questioned the financial status of the Treasury. The bankrupted state of the treasury caused massive backlash to Granger and Jordan on their strategy of managing the country’s finances. To compound the issue, the Bank of Guyana, as part of its statutory requirements, published in the Official Gazette, a Statement of Assets and Liabilities for the country. This showed that the country’s general reserves had been depleted to $0, but the account is also now running an overdraft to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. After much public outcry and criticism over the state of affairs, Granger
on June 14 announced that GuySuCo would be given a bailout that week. That was almost two weeks ago. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, NICIL also said that it would, in the very near future, make available a further $750 million to GuySuCo. On Wednesday also, GAWU, in a statement to the media, said that the apparent deliberate delay of the funds “undoubtedly has pushed the Corporation to the precipice”. Since taking office in 2015, the A Partnership for National Unity/ Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) has fired thousands of sugar workers. The Skeldon, Rose Hall and East Coast Demerara (Enmore) Estates were closed in December 2017, leaving thousands of workers jobless. The Wales Sugar Estate was the first to shut down in 2016. Only three estates are currently in operation – Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt.
Brazilian man crushed to death by rock at Puruni Mines P olice are investigating the circumstances surrounding
the death of a 55-yearold Brazilian who was on Tuesday reportedly
crushed to death by a morethan-200-pounds rock at Puruni Mines, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni). Dead is Jose Cicero Ferreira Pereira, who was employed as a maintenance worker at Hard Rock Mining Company. According to Police information, the man and a colleague were working at the top of the shaft section of an underground tunnel, which was about 80 feet beneath the earth’s surface. The duo was pumping out water when the marrack pump “choked”; as a result, Pereira was lowered into the tunnel by a remote winch and he proceeded to clear the marrack hole. His colleague claimed that after 15 minutes had
elapsed and Pereira did not signal him to be winched up, he sounded the alarm and called out for the man, but got no response. As such, he then notified the site’s manager, who was then lowered into the tunnel. There, the Brazilian national was found lying facedown in an unconscious state with a rock weighing in excess of 200 pounds resting on his head. He was brought to the top of the tunnel, where he died. The body was taken to the Bartica Regional Hospital. A post-mortem examination will be conducted as investigations continue.
…that is the CCJ’s task our Eyewitness should get extra pay for battle duty. Well, he wasn’t actually engaged in the battle, but he might as well have been. He now understands the challenge of those reporters who’re dispatched to be embedded in units thrown into combat. He’s talking, of course, about having to look at the entire all-day hearing on the Opposition parties’ appeal to the CCJ on the PNC’s illegal grab for power. This was war all right – of the old-fashioned kind, when armies would line up in formation against each other, then chaaaaarge!! Or like gladiators in Roman Coliseums duelling in front of the nobility. All the while observing rules about how exactly to destroy the fella in front of you, but destroying him anyway. Kinda like how warfare is conducted inside boxing rings, with an umpire to ensure the rules of engagement are observed. The lines were drawn, the troops were massed in their uniforms, and the umpires rang the bell to start the fray; to pause it so as to allow the wounded to be carried off the field and regroup, and finally to announce that next Wednesday at 3 pm they’ll announce who won the battle. The weapons were the mouths of the lawyers – many of them foreign mercenaries - and their bullets were their words…and these certainly flew fast and furious. First up was the Trini Mendes, who’s become something of a fixture in the legal arena of recent. He quite endeared himself to the local spectators who witnessed the last gladiatorial contest when he brought a courtly charm to the fight by addressing the Chief Justice as “Milady”. You just expected him to throw his coat over a puddle for her to step over!! Anyhow, Mendes threw the PPP partisans for a loop when he agreed that, technically, on an explication of Art 177 (4) – as argued by the PNC – the CCJ didn’t have jurisdiction to listen to the case on appeal from the Court of Appeal (CoA). But in an unusual manoeuvre, he then slyly pointed out that the CoA, in fact, never decided the case that was brought to them by Miss David on the grounds laid out by the exclusionary Art 177 (4). So, the CCJ had wrongly arrogated jurisdiction – and this could be challenged at the CCJ!! The CCJ could rectify matters by throwing, out by reinstating, the status quo ante!! His hapless opponent, another Trini, John Jeremie, weakly blustered that the CoA did in fact have jurisdiction even though he couldn’t find a single precedent in the entire Commonwealth to back up his (hypothetical) contention!! That a presidential election could be challenged before the President was declared!! …what might it be It became pretty clear early in the duel that the CCJ’s gonna assume jurisdiction. Maybe because the PNC had taken them for fools the last time they came before them?? You remember when the eminent jurists took the PNC at face value, told them what the law was on the NCM - and the PNC kicked them in the nuts by hanging on for another year? And counting!!! So how’ll they take jurisdiction? Well, one of the lawyers for a small party referred to Marbury v Madison, didn’t he?? That’s the foundational 1803 US Supreme Ct case where they CREATED the power of “judicial review”. Once the constitution’s ever violated, they could then strike down any statute, law or governmental actions emanating from the violation. The CCJ’s questions posing hypotheticals that would have the working of the present laws result in great hardships to Guyanese suggest they’ll invoke “natural law” to justify this. Then, of course, they could always invoke Constitutional violation of its “basic structure”!! …the PNC don’t care But it wasn’t smooth sailing after Justice Marshall introduced Judicial Review. There was the famous case of Andrew Jackson asking how many troops the Supreme Court had to enforce their decision? That’ll be Granger’s reaction. Readers are invited to send their comments by email to eye@guyanatimesgy.com
