Minister of Finance Winston Jordan has applied to the National Assembly for the approval of more than $2.52 billion in additional spending for the 2018 fiscal year, including $788 million to meet estimated legal fees for the preparation of Guyana’s case in the border controversy with Venezuela for the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Although $300 million was allocated in the 2018 budget for this line item, Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge said on Thursday that the extra $788,049,000 “is to cover the cost of retaining lawyers to do what needs to be done in 2018. We don’t know exactly how much it will cost because we don’t know how the court process will unfold, it depends in part on what the court requires… Venezuela may choose to appear or not appear and if they appear they may ask the court to do a set of things. It is difficult to say what is required, that is why it is an estimate. We may find at the end of the year that the amount is less. You pay the lawyers by time.”
Guyana last month filed an application with the ICJ to confirm the validity and binding effect of the Arbitral Award of 1899 on boundary between the two countries, following the decision by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to choose the ICJ as the next means of resolving the controversy, which stems from Venezuela’s contention that the award was null and void
