In stinging rebuke, AG tells Opposition govt’s suite of mega ventures supported by new laws

Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, SC on Friday reminded the National Assembly that the government is pursuing a suite of mega ventures across the country and the legal architecture is being developed to facilitate those new projects and programmes.

Nandlall, who is also the Minister of Legal Affairs, gave a stirring presentation on Friday during the final day of the 2024 budget debates in the National Assembly.

He spoke about his sector towards the tail end of his presentation as he focused on the government’s general development plans throughout most of his presentation.

Like many of his colleagues, he highlighted the government’s plans to invest in new roads, schools, hospitals and other facilities through Guyana’s first trillion-dollar budget.

Among the new ventures are 12 new hospitals across the country, multiple sport facilities, new schools to address overcrowding, new highways to ease major traffic congestion and 50,000 house lots for Guyanese by 2025.

“We are building and modernising the infrastructure sector in our country,” he affirmed.

He, however, compared what the PPP/C government is doing now to the unrealised ventures of the APNU+AFC while in government from 2015 to 2020. And he noted that the APNU+AFC’s five national budgets from 2015 to 2020 are just about the same size as the 2024 trillion-budget, though with less to show.

“What did the APNU/AFC do with GY$1.3 trillion in five years?

“D’Urban Park is accommodating 12 donkeys, 10 horses, and 13 vagrants and you spent over $2 billion. You built it and $600 million still cannot be accounted for,” Nandlall said.

Nandlall even made light of the APNU+AFC’s contributions during this week’s budget debates, noting that while the government spoke about its plans, they found seemingly insignificant issues to magnify.

Further, Nandlall explained that the government’s robust development agenda is being supported by a rapidly developing legislative framework. That includes crafting new laws, amending existing ones and engaging in the necessary law reform process.

“Most of the transformative projects we are working on require a robust legislative agenda,” he said.

Focusing on his sector, he also noted that new facilities are being built to support the developing legal architecture. That includes new courts and staff quarters, and moving the land, deeds and commercial registries to new spaces.