Latest update June 3rd, 2026 12:40 AM
Guyanese law students conduct review of land management legislation
Minister of State Joseph Harmon yesterday received a copy of the preliminary report of a legislative review of the laws that deal with land management.
From left: Commissioner and CEO of GLSC, Trevor Benn; students Glendon Greenidge, Joshua Benn and Erica Cappell, and Minister of State Joseph Harmon at the Ministry of the Presidency yesterday.
The review was conducted by three Guyanese students from the Hugh Wooding Law School. The report was handed over to the Minister by Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC), Trevor Benn, and the three students – Glendon Greenidge, Joshua Benn and Erica Cappell – during a short ceremony at the Ministry of the Presidency.
The Minister, who had directed the Commission to look into the harmonisation of the laws that deal with land use and management, said that land is always the subject of some kind of controversy in Guyana. He explained that entire viability of the GLSC is dependent on it being able to exercise the authority, which it was given by law.
“The extent to which you have overlapping of authority, is the extent to which persons, who are the beneficiaries of State lands sort of dodge in between the raindrops… rather than paying [their] lease[s]… So rather than having a very clear, defined positionm people utilised that lacuna in the law to be able to benefit themselves,” the Minister said.
Benn explained that the students were asked to review the laws and to make recommendations to address the gaps, which they completed within three weeks. The report will also be presented to the board of the GLSC for its review and recommendations.
The laws that were the subject of the review include the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission Act, the Guyana Forestry Commission Act, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission Act, the Amerindian Act and the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary Agricultural Development Authority Act.
The review also addressed land leases and it is recommending the amending of laws to reflect the kind of inter-agency harmony that is supposed to exist. There have been significant complaints over the years about the bureaucracy involved in land management at GLSC.
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This administration is stone deaf……..Couldn’t they have included a different set of experiences,approaches as they sought to interpret,analyze and make conclusions on the existing data ?
No, they were not capable. This is the art of “outsourcing” ones duties for the future use of regulation in an abstract concept of managing the changes of the rules. Plain talk, the laws and by laws will soon be amended to suit the goals of the administration, thus generate more revenues for the state. But addressing the failed bureaucracy will not be taken care of, which is the real problem.
It was nice to have the Students participate in an exercise!