Attorney General Anil Nandlall will lead a team from Guyana who will be testifying as witnesses in the arbitration proceedings in the Parking Meter Case, which is scheduled to be heard before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Paris, France from Monday.

Back in 2022, Smart City Solutions (SCS) had sued the government over the controversial parking meter project which the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) failed in its attempt to implement across the city back in 2016. SCS filed proceedings against the Government of Guyana through the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes based in Washington DC.

In a release today, the office of the Attorney General noted that Guyana is being sued for damages of US $100 million arising from a contract executed by the former APNU+AFC led City Council for the implementation of the Georgetown parking meter project. The project was ultimately abandoned following strong public opposition.

The witnesses scheduled to testify for and on behalf of Guyana are former Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan and former Georgetown City Councillors Malcolm Ferreira and Bishram Kuppen.

In addition, a former Chancellor of the Judiciary will also testify as an expert witness.

The project which was 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 downtown areas. The majority of the meters were installed in 2016 but the project was terminated due to widespread protests.

Guyana is represented in the proceedings by the Washington-based law firm Foley Hoag and the Attorney General’s Chambers and Mr. Nandlall had explained that more than US$3M was already expended on legal fees.

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