Dear Editor,
Writing on his blog, The Conversation Tree, former Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Ralph Ramkarran, SC has flagged the issue of efficiency of the judiciary as being one of the prominent concerns of investors now flooding into Guyana and described as “shortsighted” the unaddressed problems which contribute to impeding same. Implicit, is the caution that continued sloth by the collective -Attorney General, Cabinet and the President- will negatively impact on such investments and by extension, badly needed job-creation.
Editor, I could not agree more with Mr. Ramkarran, and for what it’s worth, wish to cite our ongoing experience of seeking judicial redress in a commercial dispute involving our company and a commercial bank. In brief, it took almost nine years for a decision in our action and before a specialist court! Under prevailing conditions, and left to itself, a hearing of our appeal to the ruling can conceivably take an equal period.
Which investor it needs asking, would be comfortable in coming to a jurisdiction where full judicial resolution of a simple commercial dispute can potentially take two decades? Yes, not addressing the problems affecting the efficiency of the judiciary is indeed extremely shortsighted.
Sincerely,
Ronald Bulkan
