More than a week after quietly wresting control of 22 city streets from the Georgetown City Council, transferring them to the Ministry of Public Works as public roads, the Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, has defended the move.

On the 20th March, 2026, the Minister signed off on a Government Order taking control of a number of main streets in the city that were under municipal control. The decision was gazetted, and first brought to light publicly by Attorney Brenden Glasford on his www.sidebargy.com website.

In a statement on Friday night, hours after the Georgetown City Council officially registered its protest of the move and threatened legal action, the Ministry of Public Works said the Government of Guyana acted lawfully, responsibly, and in the public interest with the move.

The Ministry has accused the City Mayor, Alfred Mentore, of misinterpreting the Municipal and District Councils Act, Cap. 28:01, which it said defines a “council road” as any road other than a public road.

“This is decisive. Once a road is lawfully designated as a public road, it ceases, by operation of law, to be a council road. The notion proffered that these roads remain permanently within the Council’s jurisdiction is wholly misconceived. Indeed, section 274 of the Act, upon which the Mayor relies, clearly states that the Council’s powers are subject to other written laws, one of which would be the Roads Act, Cap. 51:01. This critical limitation subjects the municipal authority over roads to the broader national legal framework”, the Ministry of Works said.

On Friday, Mayor Mentore said under Section 301 of the Muncipal and District Council Act, the Council is responsible for the control, care and management of all streets, and parapets within the city. He said any unilateral action to seize or reclassify those streets undermines the lawful authority of the council. The Mayor said the City Council was never consulted of the move, He first learnt of the gazetted decision on Thursday when contacted by News Source for a comment.

The Ministry of Public Works is contending that the Minister, on behalf of the Central Government, has the lawful authority to take over and designate any road as a Public Road, and that the claim that there was an absence of consultation is “not only false”, but is without legal foundation.

“In many previous engagements with City Council as well as by Public pronouncements, Central Government has appealed to the City Council to upkeep, maintain, and manage these streets diligently and in the best interest of residents and businesses. Unfortunately, these constant appeals were ignored. Central Government owes a duty to the public in such circumstances to do that which is necessary to remedy this situation, as these roads have been wholly neglected, are in disrepair, and in some cases are hazardous to public use”, the Public Works Ministry said.

The Ministry is contending that between 2020 and 2025, approximately $19 billion was expended on the rehabilitation of main access roads within Georgetown, while approximately $5.3 billion was invested between 2020 and 2025 in urban roads across the city, and a further $4 billion was directed towards maintenance works, while $7.4 billion went towards drainage interventions, and an estimated $5 billion towards enhancement works within Georgetown.

“These figures are not incidental; they demonstrate sustained, substantial, and necessary national intervention to support the city’s infrastructure. It is therefore disingenuous to now suggest that the Central Government is improperly intruding into an exclusively municipal domain when, in reality, it has long been required to stabilise and improve critical infrastructure for the benefit of all citizens”, the Public Works Ministry said.

However, the Georgetown Mayor has made it clear that the Government assisting in the rehabilitation and maintenance of city streets does not give it the right or power to take control of the streets. He has pointed out that the Government has done the same in other municipalities and other communities, but there have been no moves to take control of the streets in those areas.

The opposition People’s National Congress Reform led, APNU, has described the Government’s move as a sinister plot to take control of the city and further starve the City Council of much needed resources. The APNU has the majority on the Georgetown City Council.

The main parliamentary, WIN Party, has also lashed out at the Government’s move, which it sees as a further erosion of democracy under the current administration.

The Public Works Ministry has stated that framing the matter as an erosion of local democracy is misplaced.

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