Dear Editor,
Since 2020 when Guyana became an oil and gas producing and exporting country we have not seen structured legislative, administrative or institutional reforms which will ensure that the benefits from the oil and gas industry get to the largest group of Guyanese and ensure that the lives of low-income Guyanese are transformed in a way that they would not merely develop and grow, but experience prosperity. Last year, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo stated that the government wants Guyanese to prosper. President Ali stated in his New Year’s message as reported in the Stabroek News on January 3, 2026 “I pledge to guard our resources carefully, to expand opportunity relentlessly, and to ensure that development reaches every region and every community,” At the opening of the Law Year 2026, the Attorney General stated in a Village Voice article on January 14, 2026, that there is need for legal reforms, however, what we are not hearing about is legislative reforms to ensure growth and development in a more equitable and inclusive manner.
One of the glaring inequities in oil and gas Guyana was reflected in a Kaieteur News article on January 6, 2026, and titled ‘$74M fence planned for $62M Charity Police Station’. The article stated that the Ministry of Home Affairs will be spending an additional $74 million to build a fence for the recently reconstructed $62 million Charity Police Station in Region Two. Now, it is important to note that reconstruction of the new Charity Police Station cost $62 million and the cost to build the fence around the police station is $74 million. While there is hardly a commercial bank that will lend a loan to build a fence that costs more than the building, the government is using the oil money to build a fence that costs more than the building.
In a Stabroek News article on November 15, 2024, and titled ‘State ordered to pay $24m for unlawful killing of Quindon Bacchus’, then in a Kaieteur News article on December 31, 2024, and titled ‘Govt to appeal $24M court judgment for police killing of Quindon Bacchus’. In a later article in Guyana Chronicle on January 10, 2025, wisdom prevailed in the article titled ‘President Ali orders payment of $24M award in Quindon Bacchus matter’. Basically, before the President’s intervention, the government was going to appeal the decision of the court to pay Quindon Bacchus’s family $24 million, but the same government is paying $74 million for a fence; it seems that a fence is worth more than a life to the government in oil and gas Guyana.
I did much of my academic research for my Master’s Degree in Jurisprudence and Rule of Law for Development on oil and gas – the laws and jurisprudence of the countries of the oil companies in Guyana; legal reforms in the oil and gas sector in Mexico; among others. More specifically, some of my research papers focused on ‘An Examination of the Legal Systems and International Obligations (Global Regulations) for Countries of Investors and Businesses Currently Engaged in the Oil and Gas Sector in Guyana’, ‘Assessment of Reforms in the Mexican Legal Framework in the Energy Sector since 2013 and Development of Recommendations as to What Further Related or Follow-on Reforms can be Considered which would Benefit the Largest Number of Low-Income Mexican Citizens’ and my Capstone Project (Thesis) focused on ‘Development Preparedness: Strengthening Cross-sectoral Governance in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Maximise Opportunities for Maintaining Rule of Law as Guyana Transitions into an Oil and Gas Society’.
So, I am of the view that legal reforms are not focusing on developing a more economically inclusive and equitable society. Article 13 of the Guyana Constitution which states that ‘The principal objective of the political system of the State is to establish an inclusionary democracy by providing increasing opportunities for the participation of citizens, and their organisations in the management and decision-making processes of the State, with particular emphasis on those areas of decision-making that directly affect their well-being’. The Opposition, private sector, civil society and the international community have an excellent opportunity between 2026 to 2030 to do more brain steering for the government and to point the government in the direction of legislative, administrative and institutional reforms which will ensure that the benefits from the oil and gas industry get to the largest number Guyanese and low-income Guyanese, but this must be done in a more structured way and there should be legal reforms to shift the development trajectory.
Another policy since 2020, that is discriminatory and prejudicial is the new policy of the government as ‘real estate agent’ and taking 600 feet (300 feet on both sides of new roads) of the front lands from private landowners along new public roads which are being constructed. There is no law that gives the government the authority to take 600 feet of front lands or prime lands as reserves along new public roads from private landowners. How does the government determine that established businesses or big businesses will do better business or utilize these front lands better than the private landowners? What law allows the government to force private landowners to sell to the government 600 feet of their front lands/prime lands along the new public roads which are being constructed by the government with the money of the people of Guyana? What the government is doing with this new policy is setting systemic barriers and hindrances for ordinary landowners to limit their growth and
development and their ability to compete and have equity in the real estate market or with the government or the state as owners of land too.
The government is building the new East Bank Public Road to the Soesdyke/Linden Highway and extend to Timehri, and some landowners along the path of the road are making it very clear that they do not want to sell their front lands/prime lands to the government. Many of them already have plans for how these front lands will be used. Landowners are in favour of allowing the government to have the land for the new East Bank Public Road to Soesdyke/Linden Highway and to the Timehri for two lane or four lane roadways and the reserve for utilities but some landowners will not be forced by the government to give up 600 feet (300 feet on both sides) of their prime lands to the government. However, if some landowners want to voluntarily sell 600 feet (300 ft on both sides) of their front lands to the government, they can do so, but it must be voluntary. It is illegal for the government to force all private landowners along the path of the road to sell 600 feet of their front lands to the government.
It is sad that many policies of the government in oil and gas Guyana, are mainly enriching those in government, close to the government and businesses, instead of the ordinary Guyanese citizens and taking the prime lands from private landowners, even if the government is purchasing these lands, is not only illegal, discriminatory and prejudicial, but also promote inequality and is unconstitutional.