> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Government Took Over Running the Berbice Bridge in 2018. It Still Paid G$400 Million for the Company in 2026. - URL: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/government-took-over-berbice-bridge-2018-still-paid-400-million-2026/ - Published: 2026-11-09T23:10:30.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-12T18:51:30.000Z - Description: An order gazetted on 3 November 2018 moved the job of maintaining and operating the Berbice bridge to the Government, from 5 November 2018 until a Minister gave notice that the danger had passed. No such notice appears in the official record. - Author: Theon Alleyne - Tags: Guyana, Infrastructure, Public Finance, Business, Beat: economics, MSME: indirect **Quick summary:** An order gazetted on 3 November 2018 moved the job of maintaining and operating the Berbice bridge to the Government, from 5 November 2018 until a Minister gave notice that the danger had passed. No such notice appears in the official record. The Government bought the owners out on 16 September 2026, eight years later. By LCN Business Desk Eight years ago the Government took the job of running the Berbice bridge away from the company that held it. The order that did so is still on the books. **Four things happened, in this order.** \> **One.** The bridge was going to belong to Guyana on 12 June 2027\. At no cost. That was the deal from the start. \> **Two.** The government stopped the tolls 680 days before that date. The owners could no longer collect. So the government began paying them instead. \> **Three.** Those payments grew from G$215 million a year to over G$1 billion. \> **Four.** The government then said those payments were the reason to buy the owners out. It paid G$400 million on 16 September 2026, 269 days before the bridge was free anyway. \> **WHY PAY FOR A BRIDGE THAT YOU WERE GOING TO GET FOR FREE?** ## What did the 2018 order say? That the Government, not the company, would run the bridge. The order is called the Berbice River Bridge (Public Safety) Toll Order 2018\. It is Order No. 42 of 2018\. It was printed in an [Extraordinary Gazette on 3 November 2018](https://officialegazette.gov.gy/publications/fcf0b531-eb0e-4e64-b0b5-31eb0e2e64a0?ref=lacaribenanews.com), in Legal Supplement B at page 1391. It was made under the Berbice River Bridge Act. Its second clause says the functions of Berbice Bridge Company Inc "to maintain and operate the Bridge shall be exercised by the Government." The Minister used a part of that Act which allows this when he decides it is needed "in the interests of public safety." The order also froze the tolls. Clause three says they stay "the same as those levied, collected and exempted immediately before the coming into operation of this Order." ## When was the Government supposed to hand it back? When a Minister said the danger had passed. The order says so in plain terms. The Government's control runs "during the period 5th November, 2018 to the date the Minister specifies by notice on the cessation of the threat to public safety." So the order does not have an end date. It has an end condition. A Minister has to publish a notice. ## Was that notice ever published? Not in the official record of orders and notices. The Ministry of Legal Affairs keeps that record. It is called the Official E-Gazette. It holds 3,156 publications, covering 2013 up to this month. Search it for the word "Concessionaire" and you get one document back. It is the 2018 order itself. Search it for "Berbice River Bridge" and you get the same single order. That does not prove no notice was ever made anywhere. It does mean that the one place the law publishes such notices does not have it. ### Why pay for a bridge you were going to get for free? ## Who took the tolls away in 2025? The tolls stopped on 1 August 2025\. No order in that same record does it. A different order, Order No. 42 of 2008, had given the company the right "to levy, collect and retain toll" for twenty-one years from 12 June 2006\. Two orders carry the number 42\. One is from 2008 and sets the twenty-one years. The other is from 2018 and moves the work to the Government. In 2018 the Government changed the toll position by publishing an order. In 2025 the tolls came off with no order in the record at all. ## What is the one thing we still cannot see? The agreement itself. One document decides whether this was a saving or a waste. It is the Concession Agreement. Government auditors asked for it in 2015 and were told it was not available. It has still not been published. There is a smaller thing worth knowing about the 2018 order. It was gazetted in November 2018, but the record shows it was only added to the online gazette on 3 May 2025\. That was three months before the tolls came off. The reason the government gave for the price, tested at the old payment rate, is set out in [this comparison](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/berbice-bridge-400-million-to-save-159-million-old-toll-rate-2026/). The price and the date are set out in [why Guyana paid for a bridge it was getting free](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/why-pay-for-a-bridge-guyana-was-getting-free-berbice-2026/). What the state pension scheme holds in the company is set out in [its own accounts](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-nis-berbice-bridge-906-million-maturities-2026/). ### Why pay for a bridge you were going to get for free? ### The entities \- **Berbice Bridge Company Inc** is the company that held the job of operating the bridge. - **Order No. 42 of 2018** moved that job to the Government from 5 November 2018\. - **Order No. 42 of 2008** gave the company twenty-one years from 12 June 2006\. - **Berbice River Bridge Act** is the law both orders were made under. - **Ministry of Legal Affairs** publishes the Official E-Gazette. - **Official E-Gazette** is the official record of orders and public notices, holding 3,156 publications from 2013\. - **Concession Agreement** is the document that has never been published. ### What the title card says \- Headline: the Government took over running the Berbice bridge in 2018 and still paid G$400 million for the company in 2026\. - Date the 2018 order was gazetted: 3 November 2018, Legal Supplement B, page 1391\. - Date the Government's control began: 5 November 2018\. - How it ends: on the date a Minister publishes a notice that the threat to public safety has ceased. - Publications in the Official E-Gazette, 2013 to 2026: 3,156\. - Results for the word Concessionaire in that record: one, the 2018 order itself. - Date the tolls stopped: 1 August 2025\. - Paid for the shares: G$400 million, on 16 September 2026. ## Frequently Asked Questions Who has been running the Berbice bridge since 2018? Order No. 42 of 2018 says the functions of the company "to maintain and operate the Bridge shall be exercised by the Government" from 5 November 2018. When does that arrangement end? On the date a Minister publishes a notice that the threat to public safety has ceased. The order sets no calendar date. Has that notice been published? It does not appear in the Official E-Gazette, the Ministry of Legal Affairs record of orders and notices, which holds 3,156 publications from 2013 to this month and returns one result for the word "Concessionaire": the 2018 order itself. What order took the tolls away in 2025? None appears in that record. The tolls stopped on 1 August 2025\. Order No. 42 of 2008 had given the company the right to levy, collect and retain toll for twenty-one years from 12 June 2006. Are there really two Order No. 42s? Yes. One from 2008 sets the twenty-one year period. One from 2018 moves the operating work to the Government.