Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall has told the National Assembly that it will cost Guyana US$3 million in just legal fees to defend itself against the US$100 million lawsuit brought by international company, Smart City Solutions (SCS) over the terminated parking meters project.
He made the disclosure during yesterday’s sitting of the National Assembly while a supplementary provision of $100 million was being considered for his ministry.
“Sir, it is public knowledge that the Government of Guyana was sued for the parking meter contract that was entered into during the tenure of the last government and there are legal proceedings currently ongoing at an international tribunal in Washington DC. Some US$3 million will have to be expended only in legal fees to represent the government’s interest in those legal proceedings. What is reflected here is simply a deposit towards those legal fees,” the AG said.
He added that almost every day the government is being sued in what he considers to be “frivolous litigation.”
“So only today [Monday] we had proceedings filed in relation to the appointment of Patrick Findlay as Chairman of the Police Service Commission and every member appointed by the President to the Integrity Commission has also been sued. These persons are simply dragged before the courts because they have
demonstrated a willingness to serve the people of their country. They have been sued simply because they were the subject of consultations between the President and the Leader of the Opposition, as is required by the law and the Constitution.
“Each of these persons has been sued in their personal capacity. So the state has to provide lawyers to represent these persons as they are being sued for no fault of their own and we have different litigation … being filed by the Leader by the Opposition in the court system…,” Nandlall said.
The AG related that the government also had to retain lawyers to represent its interest in the ongoing election petition cases before the courts.
In January, Nandlall announced that SCS had sued the government over the controversial parking meter project which the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) failed in its attempt to implement across the city back in 2016. SCS filed proceedings against the Government of Guyana through the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes based in Washington DC.
Initial implementation of the parking meters was followed by months of controversy which roiled the Council with the deal championed by then Georgetown Mayor Patricia Chase-Green and then Town Clerk Royston King.
After protests and a widespread boycott of the parking meters, specifically against the fees which were seen by many as exorbitant, the then Ministry of Communities had put the project on hold to permit the city to undertake wider consultations.
During this period, a number of amendments were made to the deal, and then subject Minister Ronald Bulkan later sought to approve the By-Laws for metered parking in the city.
The Supreme Court, however, later quashed Bulkan’s approval, finding that he failed to follow the procedure mandated by the Municipal and District Councils Act, for bringing the By-Laws into force.
Then in opposition, the PPP/C had said it would not support the parking meter project under the contract M&CC signed with SCS. Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo at the time had said he believed the contract to be flawed.
Meanwhile, the stance of the APNU+AFC government at the time was that it would not act against the Georgetown City Council in its implementation of the project. Then Minister of State Joseph Harmon had said further that government was also not prepared to act against the Council for the By-laws it passed.
In a hands-off approach, he had said that government was committed to allowing the city council to govern unhindered. The city and APNU+AFC had been flayed for pursuing the parking meters deal.
