Over $1 billion has been allocated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the payment of legal fees associated with Guyana’s move to the International Court of Justice for the adjudication of its border controversy with Venezuela, Minister Carl Greenidge revealed on Monday after being questioned by Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira during the consideration of the planned expenditure for next year.
After more than an hour of back and forth between the minister and opposition members, the $6.8 billion in estimates were approved by the Committee of Supply.
Teixeira rose to the floor and posed questions to Greenidge about spending listed under the line item 6284, which was headlined “other.”
With $300 million being allocated in 2018, she noted the supplementary allocation of $780 million for 2018 and questioned whether it was taken out of the US$18 million signing bonus that was received from ExxonMobil. “…And I noticed in the 2019 budget you are requesting $1,088,000,000, almost the exact figure of 2018 revised. Could you say what this figure will be used for? I know it is legal fees, but it seems to be extraordinary in 2019… Could you give us more details of the 2019 request and the use of the 2018 supplementary?” she questioned.
Greenidge explained that the amount recorded in 2018 was paid against submissions by lawyers. “In 2018, the legal team was supplemented… It was supplemented compared to when it started. It started with three firms of lawyers and by the time you got to the end there was an additional major firm. And the amount spent in 2018 had a supplementary provision which met the extra cost to the extent of $788,049,000,” he said, while noting that the 2019 estimate has been intentionally made to mirror the previous year’s cost since they are assuming that there will be similar hours.
“…These are legal fees based upon hours of work that the lawyers estimate that they will do. As you know, if you have five or six lawyers these are the chambers and they have assistants for documents to be reproduced. So it’s actually difficult to make a correct estimate… We don’t know, for example, for certain much about 2019, especially for example if the Venezuelans decide to participate… to submit a response to the memorial and if they do then the quantum of work that will be needed will be different from the quantum of work if they didn’t made the submissions. So this is really an educated guess,” Greenidge explained.
He was further questioned by Teixeira on whether the money included not only the research by the lawyers and their hours but also travel, hotel and other associated costs that they might incur, to which he said yes and he pointed out that all the fees paid to the lawyers cover all expenses once they are valid.
“We reimburse them for all expenses once it is valid. Sometimes, of course, depending on the expense, they come a lot later than [when] it is incurred. But, yes, all their expenses, travel, printing, additional advice, comes from the sum,” he said.
To further defend the sum, Greenidge said, “I was in the process of trying to find the Ghana case where the Ghanian government retained, I think it was 20 legal firms to work on their case. Firms, not individual lawyers, and the cost of that exercise was relatively large but in the end they won the case and the question is the resources they protected themselves were worth a multiple of the cost of the lawyer fees. So, I want us to bear that in mind. In that case, even their neighbours were asking whether it was wise to retain two firms,” he added.
Greenidge was also questioned by opposition member Clement Rohee on the increased allocations for the ministry’s foreign office, which he related was done to strengthen the office, which will also see the hiring of a Head of Mission with experience and analytical skills.
“Establishing an exporters’ database, a national trade informational portal, possibly a trade magazine and a variety of other strategies database,” he said, while noting that the increase reflects his ministry’s bringing together of technical skills where they are needed.
