Akiemboto saddened by decline of Grassalco

Sergio Akiemboto who was the CEO of the state mining company Grassalco from 2011 until mid 2019 is deeply saddened by the current state of the company. He explained that he had worked hard to transform Grassalco into a renowned state company. But the company has lost its former glory. According to Akiemboto, a combination of circumstances has led to another collapse of Grassalco. Certain decisions that were made at the highest level are also part of those circumstances. “Grassalco had no long term debts. That is how I left the company. The company was not bankrupt. There were indeed some things during the last two years (of the Bouterse administration) which caused a drop in the income of Grassalco,” said Akiemboto who is currently a legislator from the NDP in parliament. Grassalco was and still is financially dependent on the royalties of the operations on the concessions. The royalties are used to make investments in its own operations. During the last phase of the Bouterse administration those royalties were put up as collateral for the Oppenheimer loans. “That was a huge blow to the company,” said Akiemboto. Another blow to the company was the loss of a concession area where there are huge gold reserves. The company had invested millions to collect valuable data. But after the results were in the concession was reclaimed by the government and allocated to private entrepreneurs. The COVID-19 crisis also added to the further decline of the company. But according to Akiemboto all is not lost. “Grassalco can make it through this rough patch with good leadership. There are still many opportunities for the company to grow.”