AG withholds legal costs to fight against Guyanese in major oil, other cases filed against Gov’t
Kaieteuer News – Attorney General, Anil Nandlall SC has failed to provide details on the costs incurred by the state to fight legal cases relating to the petroleum and other sectors.
Opposition Parliamentarian, Annette Ferguson
The Legal Affairs Minister was requested by Opposition Parliamentarian, Annette Ferguson to provide a detailed list to the National Assembly of the number of cases where the Ministry represented the government between 2022 and 2023.
She also asked for a list of retainers and their costs for those cases. Additionally, Ferguson requested the Minister of Legal Affairs to inform the National Assembly which procurement method was used to obtain the services of the retainers and say how many cases were successful.
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Attorney General, Anil Nandlall SC
uring the 84th Sitting of the National Assembly on July 31, 2024, Nandlall provided the response to the former Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure. While he supplied the House with the Court cases handled by the AG’s Chambers during the period, he did not outline the costs attached with fighting those cases and the Lawyers that were retained.
In fact, the AG in response said the question by Ferguson was “wholly misconceived”. Nandlall explained, “The Ministry did not retain lawyers for cases in which the Ministry represented the Government for the year 2022 and 2023.”  Likewise, he said questioning the procurement method was “otiose” or pointless.
Similarly, on the question of how many of those cases were successful, he said the Ministry of Legal Affairs does not record successes or failures of cases.  According to the list seen by Kaieteur News, some 131 Court matters were handled by the AG Chambers during the period. These include critical oil and gas related matters such as the tax case that was filed by Publisher of Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall; the case seeking to quash Exxon’s Permit for the Gas-to-Energy (GTE) pipeline; the case for full liability protection from oil spills filed by Frederick Collins and Godfrey Whyte and finally a matter filed by a citizen, Stuart Hughes for adequate compensation for his lands affected by the GTE pipeline.
The government had won the tax case, while the citizens were successful in their application to the Court seeking full liability coverage for oil spills. That decision was later appealed and is presently ongoing. With regard to the GTE Permit, the Court ruled in favour of the citizens that the Permit was not legally issued but did not quash the Permit. The citizens have appealed that ruling. In the meantime, the other matter involving Hughes is still ongoing.
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