Harmon was informed that Opposition Leader
| By Kiana WilburgMinister of State, Joseph Harmon, asserted yesterday, that the government welcomes any intervention by the Opposition on issues that will essentially move Guyana forward.The Cabinet Secretary made this assertion during a post Cabinet press conference which was held yesterday at the Ministry of the Presidency.There, Harmon was informed that Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo recently stated that he remains open to talks on the future of the sugar industry. He was then questioned to say if Government is interested in exploring this avenue for communication with the Opposition.The Minister of State said, “We have always said that we welcome the Opposition Leader; we welcome the Opposition to have conversations on these matters but we do not wish to have these matters, such as the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), to be made into a political football.”Harmon added, “And we believe that it is an important matter which has to do with the livelihood of a significant number of Guyanese. We believe that it has to do with the economic future of this county and therefore any conversation on GuySuCo we would welcome Jagdeo and crew to discuss it with us.“We have said before that we welcome any intervention by Jagdeo and team to speak on this.”The Minister of State added that the government is willing to have discussions with the Opposition on the future of the sugar industry and any other matter of national importance.The issue of the sugar industry has been a contentious one, between the coalition administration and the political opposition.In fact, President David Granger recently reminded the Parliament that the gravest financial problem it inherited from the former regime was perhaps the bankruptcy of the Guyana Sugar Corporation which had $89 billion in debts.“Your Government was forced to divert money from economic development and social projects to rescue the ailing corporation with an immediate injection of $12 billion. An additional $11 billion had to be provided the next year, 2016, making a total of $23 billion bailout in 18 months,” the President said.Granger said that these transfers exclude the servicing of GUYSUCO’s debts in respect of the Skeldon Estate Modernisation Project which he deemed as a monstrous and monumental US$200 million mistake and, probably, Guyana’s single most costly industrial catastrophe of all time.On the other hand, Jagdeo has been bashing the government for its failure to solve the issues affecting the sugar industry since it assumed office. But he admitted on Thursday, that indeed, the PPP regime should shoulder some of the blame for the prevailing sugar woes.Jagdeo made this comment during a press conference held at Freedom House. There, the former President was asked by Kaieteur News whether he felt that the PPP should essentially take some responsibility for the troubles facing the sugar sector since those problems did not start 17 months ago.The Opposition leader said, “On the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), I agree. I agree absolutely with what you are saying that the troubles with GuySuCo started some time back and a lot of it had to do with the cuts in the European Union prices where we lost about US$40M per annum of revenue.”Jagdeo added, “But when the Government decided to close the Wales Sugar Estate, I said to them that we are prepared to sit and talk about the future of the industry because we believe that it has a future.”The Opposition Leader stressed that he is still open to talks with the government once there is a serious approach that is not political or a product of some Cabinet Committee. |
