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Dr. Thomas should not head GuySuCo because of Globe Trust track record – PPP

 


The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) yesterday launched an invective against Dr. Clive Thomas’ selection as Chairman of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), claiming that as Thomas had presided over the failure of the Globe Trust and Investments Company Ltd., he should not preside over the sugar industry.

Guysuco Chairman Dr. Clive Thomas

Guysuco Chairman
Dr. Clive Thomas

This was the party’s position during a press conference held at its headquarters.
When reminded of the PPP/C’s decision to appoint Geeta Singh-Knight as a director on the GuySuco board, after her tenure at Colonial Life Insurance Company (Clico) saw the financial collapse of the institution, General Secretary of the PPP/C Clement Rohee, claimed it was “not appropriate” to comment on it.
Globe Trust began operating in April of 1991 and was licensed in 1999 to conduct depository business. It was also given the authority to engage in Trust business. However, in 2000, and again in 2001, the Bank of Guyana launched inspections that found the institution to be in breach of the Financial Institutions Act. With the aim of liquidating the institution, the Company was seized in September of 2001.
However, more than 5000 investors with their life savings tied up at the institution were left in the cold with this move. In the aftermath, there were several calls for the prosecution of the former Management team.
“This speaks volumes of Thomas’ stewardship. (This was)The first institution this distinguished, renowned and respectable economist was asked to oversee and it is a glowing manifestation of what is to be expected of his chairmanship of GuySuCo and his tenure as Presidential Advisor on Sustainable Development,” Rohee declared.
Rohee also claimed that ‘many’ of the former directors of GlobeTrust were now in the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Government, though he did not go on to name who these individuals were.
The General Secretary also referred to Thomas’ championing of GuySuCo’s privatization, and the presence of representatives from Guyana’s largest European sugar customer- Tate and Lyle. According to Rohee, steps have already been taken towards privatization, as well as putting the corporation into Tate and Lyle’s hands.
Rohee was, however reminded of the PPP/C’s administration’s decision to take former CEO of Clico Guyana, Geeta Singh-Knight, fresh from the institutions collapse in order to make her a director on the GuySuCo board.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to make that comparative analysis. I don’t know if she was the Chairman of the Board of GuySuCo.”
Rohee was also reminded of the fact that former President Donald Ramotar had been a part of the GuySuCo board during its declining years. At this point the General Secretary refused to “get into that”, declaring “If you want you can knock Geeta Singh-Knight. I will knock Clive Thomas.”
Singh-Knight’s appointment to the GuySuCo board ran into a firestorm of criticism after it was discovered that during her tenure as CEO of Clico, the institution had breached the Insurance Act by investing more than it should have overseas. When the institution collapsed in 2009 following the global financial crisis in 2008, Clico workers were dismissed en masse and some 11,000 small policy holders were left in limbo.

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