| – Kaieteur News to foot the billA challenge on Tuesday to open the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) for a forensic audit,Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping, thrown out by Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, has been accepted by both Kaieteur News and chartered accountant, Christopher Ram.Kaieteur News Publisher, Glenn Lall, yesterday disclosed that he has seen the call by Minister Persaud and is prepared to finance the cost of the audit of the state-owned agency.Ram, in a letter appearing in today’s publication,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, said that he hoped that the challenge was not just a bluff on Persaud’s part and that “he has both the authority and the courage to carry through with his challenge. I now await word from him.”According to Ram, he is available to meet with the Minister and the Corporation’s officials, as early as Monday, to agree the scope of the engagement and to commence work immediately after.The Minister yesterday said that he stands by his offer.“I am not bluffing. Whenever Mr. Ram is ready, he can make contact with the Chief Executive Officer of GuySuCo, Paul Bhim, and the audit will be accommodated,” the Minister said yesterday.Managing Director of Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall, said that he is willing to put his personal money in the interest of transparency, accountability and decency in any public administration where public funds are involved.Mr Lall added that he hopes that a similar invitation would be forthcoming for the Amaila Falls road and hydro project.The offer by Minister Persaud stemmed from a letter in the Stabroek News on May 17, by the chartered accountant which among other things spoke of the cost of the recently commissioned Enmore packaging plant.GuySuCo on Tuesday issued a detailed statement stressing that the US$12.5M ($2.5B) is the total cost of Project Gold, an initiative which includes the upgrade of the Enmore factory and the supply and installation of packaging equipment and warehouse, among other things.Ram, in that letter, said that Kenya’s largest sugar miller,Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys, Mumias Sugar Company (MSC), recently built at a cost of US$3M a new 11-machine, state-of-the-art packaging plant with a daily capacity of 700 tonnes of sugar.The Enmore project was financed by the European Union under special measures to assist Guyana, following a 36 per cent price cut by GuySuCo’s biggest customer there.The plant was built by Surendra Engineering Corporation, a Mumbai-based company that is building two turn-key refinery facilities in Sudan. Surendra says that it has partnered with UK’s Tate and Lyle,Cheap NHL Jerseys, and Booker Tate.In his letter today, Ram pointed out that in the May 17 letter in the Stabroek News, he corrected President Jagdeo’s “exaggerated pronouncement of sugar’s contribution” to the country’s GDP as 16 per cent instead of the more realistic six per cent.“The focus of my letter was to caution that the packaging plant,Cheap NFL Jerseys, welcome though it is, could not be a silver bullet for the serious financial problems of the Corporation. In that connection I drew attention to the wave of packing plants taking place across the world and specifically referred to a 300,000 tonnes capacity Plant by Mumias Sugar Company (MSC) with a daily capacity of 700 tonnes and a price tag of US$3M.”Ram challenged both GuySuCo and Minister Persaud to prove he referred to or questioned the cost of the Enmore Packaging Plant.“I note that Mr. Robert Persaud has challenged Kaieteur News and me ‘to conduct a forensic audit of Guysuco and the Packing Plant.’ I hereby accept this challenge to undertake a professional audit,Cheap Jerseys, the cost of which will be borne by Kaieteur News.” |
