Latest update February 26th, 2025 6:31 AM
Preparing for oil…Lawyer proposes Regulations Committee to ensure robust framework for Maritime Sector
Maritime Lawyer, Amanza Walton-Desir
By Kiana Wilburg
With oil production expected to commence in the first quarter of next year, Guyana’s maritime sector would be in need of a number of key pieces of legislation and regulations to ensure it can properly respond to the new challenges to come.
But leaving this work to be done by the Attorney General’s (AG) Chambers may not be the best route to take, given its capacity issues, says Maritime Lawyer, Amanza Walton-Desir.
At the Guyana Maritime Conference 2019, which was held at the Marriott Hotel on Monday, Walton-Desir proposed the establishment of a Regulations Committee to handle this work.
Clarifying and expounding a bit on her comments at the conference, the lawyer told Kaieteur News last night that the capacity of the AG’s Chambers is an issue, but not because of the competence of its people. She said that it has to do with the overwhelming volume of the legislative agenda before the Chambers and the fact that maritime regulations are quite technical in nature.
Walton-Desir said, “What you find is that there is a lag; it takes an extremely longer time for such technical regulations to be vetted. They don’t have the technical people, or lawyers who are specifically trained in maritime law (to ensure this is done). However, there is expertise outside of the AG’s chambers.”
The lawyer added, “What I proposed (at the conference) is that we look at a Regulations Committee for the maritime sector comprising staff of the AG Chambers, Personnel of the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as the lawyers who are trained in Maritime Law.”
Walton- Desir said that this is something, which can be done in less than a month so that the key pieces of maritime legislation could be developed in time for the first quarter of 2020.
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