Bula
The big news on the front page of The Fiji Times for Tuesday, September 26, is on the Rugby World Cup in France. There is a tinge of excitement hovering over the Flying Fijians, especially on the issue of discipline. We have turned a new leaf it seems, and raised our level of discipline which is reaping rewards.
Headlines
Inside, we talk about the empowerment of women, and there is a story about a 30-year-old woman charged with one count of rape of a 4-year-old child.
The police force is also investigating one of its own for the alleged rape of a fellow officer at the weekend in Lautoka.
Synopsis
Minister for Sugar Charan Jeath Singh made a powerful statement the other day, slamming sugar ministers, permanent secretaries, multiple Fiji Sugar Corporation chairmen, directors of the FSC board and highly paid CEOs of FSC from 2005-2018 for what he terms serious abandonment of their fiduciary duties to the company.
He made the comments after revealing FSC suffered a loss of $550 million through the disastrous mill upgrade program of its four mills since its commencement in 2006 through a $102 million loan taken from the Exim Bank of India.
Mr Singh said they had discovered that project management was a dismal failure, was ineffective, lacked basic transparency and was without adequate checks and balances.
In December 2021, we had reported that FSC had targeted a crop of 2 million tonnes in 2022 which was encouraging at the time.
Its CEO Bhan Pratap Singh, in a statement, said the FSC had recorded a cane crop of 1.41 million tonnes for 2021, compared with 1.73 million tonnes in 2020.
The focus then, he said, was on increasing the crop size to 2 million tonnes.
FSC then focused on “targeted investments” with the goal of increasing reliability and improving throughput.
There would be a concerted drive for efficient milling operations to reduce mill breakdowns, improve TCTS (tonnes cane to tonne sugar), implement good manufacturing and hygiene practices, and enhance sugar quality.
Given the drop in production, any effort to improve tonnage would be embraced by stakeholders. That’s a no-brainer!
At one stage in our history, sugar was the backbone of our economy. It was the lifeline for thousands of farmers along the cane belts. They depended on it.
They fed their families, paid their bills, and educated their children. It provided the base for associated industries to thrive. It drove the local economy and gave families hope.
Then there was a steady decline.
This is why this latest attack on key stakeholders will attract attention.
Mr Singh talks about the absence of co-ordination.
He suggests issues and potential conflicts should have been diligently anticipated and addressed in the initial contract negotiations and a proper resolution framework should have been agreed on.
It makes sense that there should have been vigilance considering this important economic resource.
So many people depended on it. The big question would be, why didn’t we see this coming, and why wasn’t something done to alleviate the challenges we are now facing?
Was there a concerted effort initiated to search for ways to cushion negative impacts of changes in the sugar market prices?
Mr Singh insists the most serious act of negligence on FSC’s part was its failure to appoint a technically qualified engineer to supervise the project that would ensure delivery of agreed KPIs.
“From the sugar ministers down to permanent secretaries, multiple chairmen and directors of the FSC board to a long succession of highly paid CEOs of FSC, they are all guilty of serious abandonment of their fiduciary duties.
Any effort to raise the stakes in the sugar industry can only mean good things for us all.
However, we also will have to accept the intricate weavings that are deeply entrenched in the industry.
We will have to embrace and address the complex issues that are attached to it.
The closure of the mill in Rakiraki raises the issue of cartage fees for many farmers for instance, on top of time spent on the road and waiting at mills.
Then there are land issues that need to be addressed, and longevity in terms of farms and farmers as their children leave home, planning for different career paths.
We realise the importance of the industry, and hope there are incentives, and processes are in place to address its complex issues. The COVID-19 pandemic has also taught us many lessons about putting our eggs in one basket.
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