GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC -The Guyana government Friday said it remains committed to honoring the objectives of the International Decade for People of African Descent that ends on December 31, 2024.
But it said that while the budgeted sum for the year 2022 is “unfortunately, the subject of legal proceedings, the monies budgeted and appropriated for the year 2023 are not,” and as a result, it “plans to disburse the 2023 subvention to 55 organizations representing Afro-Guyanese across the country”.
The move by the Irfaan Ali administration comes a few hours after Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire set June 14 to hear oral arguments and clarifications after the government and the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly – Guyana (IDPADA-G) acknowledged that talks had broken down regarding the reinstatement of the monthly subvention to the organization.
IDPADA-G has been ordered to make its written submission on or before May 4, 2023, while the State – the defendant in the matter– is expected to file its request on May 25.
IDPADA-G had, earlier this year, gone to court challenging the government’s decision to withhold the disbursements because over GUY$500 million (One Guyana dollar=US$0.004 cents) disbursed so far had not reached a large number of African Guyanese.
The two sides, which have been at loggerheads over the issue of the subvention since August 2022, had initiated the process of mediation in February based on the instructions of the Chief Justice.
IDPADA-G attorney, Dr. Vivian Williams, told the court Friday that no agreement had been reached, adding, “the settlement talks have broken down irretrievably.”
Attorney General Anil Nandlall also confirmed that the negotiations had broken down, saying, “Your Honour, Mr. Williams has accurately reported to the court. Unfortunately, we have been unable to arrive at a compromise we intended to achieve by the mediation process”.
In its statement issued by the Office of the Attorney General, the government said as a demonstration of its commitment to the International Decade for People of African Descent Decade, it had allocated monies for the advancement of the objectives since it assumed office in 2020.
It said funds to the 55 organizations this year will allow them “the founding members of the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly-Guyana to pursue the objectives of the Decade.”
But Dr. Williams told the Guyana-based online publication, Demerara Waves, that the matter is before the court and that it had received an undertaking from the parties to keep the issue private.
“This is a breach of the undertaking given by the parties not to raise or address this matter with the media or the press generally,” he said, noting that the government’s statement was not brought to the court’s attention.
“If I look at the publication’s contents if it came from the government, then it also indicates an attempt to circumvent an earlier ruling of the court, and to that specific issue again, I will not speak,” he said.
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