Despite there being an ongoing court matter, the Government of Guyana has made a decision to disburse a budgeted $100 million to several Afro-Guyanese organizations instead of the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly -Guyana (IPADA-G).
In statement on Friday, Attorney General, Anil Nandlall said, “Government plans to disburse the 2023 subvention to 55 organizations representing Afro-Guyanese across the country, who are the founding members of the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly-Guyana to pursue the objectives of the Decade.”
AG Nandlall sought to justify the government’s decision in his statement, stating that while the issue is still before the courts, the monies appropriated for the year 2023 are not.
The foregoing announcement was made just hours after the organisation and the government appeared before the courts and informed the Chief Justice, Roxane George- Wiltshire that they were unable to come to an amicable solution during mediation.
The Chief Justice will however hear the case in full on June 30 at the High Court.
Attorney-at-Law, Vivian Williams told the Court that talks with the administration were futile, especially since the organisation sought settlement from the government.
Williams, in collaboration with Attorney Nigel Hughes, also made an attempt to offer a detailed analysis of what went wrong during the mediation process. The Chief Justice however declined to hear the explanation saying, “That’s not the Court’s business. When parties go to mediation whether through the Court mediation system or on their own and they don’t settle, all you come back to Court and say is, ‘we didn’t settle.”
Meanwhile, representing the interest of the Government, Attorney General Anil Nandlall told the court that the two sides failed to meet a compromise on the issue and as such, there was no longer a need for mediation.
“Unfortunately, we have been unable to arrive at a compromise that we had intended to achieve by the mediation process… and given the circumstance; the State has already prepared its Affidavit in Defence,” the AG said.
