The Government of Guyana is facing a US$100M lawsuit filed by Smart City Solutions (SCS) for damages and compensation following the failed attempt by the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) to implement parking meters in Georgetown.
The project led by then Mayor Patricia Chase-Green and former Town Clerk Royston King, sought to implement paid parking in the city with the installation of over sixty parking meters in the busy downtown areas. The majority of the meters were installed in 2016 but the project was terminated due to widespread protests, leaving them to rot.
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall on Tuesday evening said over $150M was spent thus far in legal fees. “We have already paid over $150M and we have put aside another $100M to pay legal fees to defend against what APNU+AFC has caused to be filed against us,” he said during his weekly programme of ‘Issues in the News.’
The case is ongoing in the United States before the Washington, DC-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)—an arbitration institution established by the World Bank Group to address legal dispute resolution and conciliation between international investors and States.
According to the AG, the Government has filed its defence which SCS is now penning its response to.
He said the entire scenario is reflective of the APNU+AFC’s mismanagement of public office from 2015 to 2020.
“This is the liability that the mismanagement and corruption of the APNU+AFC Government have exposed us to,” he reminded.
Nandlall said the former administration put the country in severe debt during its short time in office.
Guyanese had protested the parking meters since the proposed fees were deemed “exorbitant.” In fact, the initial proposed fee was $570 per hour which was reduced to $250 per hour and later $150 per hour, with $800 to be charged for eight hours.
The contract would have seen SCS carting off with 80 percent of the metering profits for close to 50 years.
The parking meters were active in January 2017, but this was met with strong resistance from the then PPP/C Opposition, private sector bodies, and ordinary citizens, who formed an organisation called Movement Against Parking Meters (MAPM) – which went on to hold some of the largest non-political protests ever seen in the city.
Amid public pressure, the then APNU/AFC Government finally intervened and suspended the bylaws which paved the way for the implementation of metered parking, thus effectively halting the parking meter project.
Meanwhile, the law firm representing Guyana in the US$100 million lawsuit, Foley Hoag and Associates.
