Building a Better Jamaica

Published: Friday | August 27, 2010
Jamaica Gleaner mark.titus@gleanerjm.com

The agriculture minister Christopher Tufton has requested a full audit of the finances of All-Island Jamaica Cane Farmers Association (AIJCFA) in face of a recent consultants' report that authoritative sources say indicate that organisation may be close to bankruptcy and incapable of fulfilling its mandate in a reorganised sugar industry.

The AIJCFA is estimated to have debts of approximately J$112 million, with insufficient inflow of cash to meet its obligations.

Tufton on Thursday declined to speak on the findings of the consultants but confirmed that he had asked the Office of the Auditor General to review the books of the AIJCFA as part of the restructuring of the sugar sector.

"In the interest of transparency and based on the overall restructuring, which will require a viable cane farmers' organisation, I have written to the auditor general requesting an audit of the institution," the minister told the Financial Gleaner.

The AIJCFA's president, Allan Rickards, was unavailable Thursday for comment in the wake of Tufton's confirmation of the audit.

A day earlier, Rickards said he knew nothing of the plans for the auditor general to troll his books.

"I cannot comment on something I know nothing about," Rickards said.

Cane farmers contacted Thursday declined to comment publicly on the matter, but some suggested that despite other issues "political power-play" was involved in the development.

Rickards is close to the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) and has in the past jockeyed unsuccessfully to run on the PNP ticket for parliament.

AIJCFA is not a public entity, but Tufton's authority to send government auditors into what, on the face it, is an organisation of private members rests in the Sugar Cane Farmers (Incorporation and Cess) Act of 1941, which gives the agriculture minister wide oversight powers over the AIJCFA, parti-cularly the management of its finances.

Apparently, the association is tardy in meeting reporting obligations.

It is the 1941 law, too, that provides the authority for an upfront deduction of a levy from the earnings of all farmers from the sugar cane they sell to factories.

That levy was earlier this year hiked to J$30 per tonne of sugar cane, up from the J$7 at which it stood for several years.

The AIJCFA, which lobbies on behalf of cane farmers and provides some support services for the group, also earns some income from the sale of farm supplies.

But its income, according to the organisational review completed by the Jamaican firm C.A. Goodridge and Associates, is insufficient to meet current payments and debt built up over several years.

This study was financed by the European Union (EU).

According to a Financial Gleaner source, who quoted from the Goodridge report, the consultants concluded that the cane farmers' association would have trouble avoiding bankruptcy "unless financial arrangements are made with its major creditor and successful management plans are made and the organisation returns to profitability".

But the consultants had reservations about the AIJCFA's current leadership to turn around the organisation.

"The current management team is unable to undertake the task of restructuring and revitalising the the association ... . There is no long term for the association, hence the committee of management does not have the necessary tools for acceptability or for making the necessary policy decisions," the report concluded.