The Linden-Mabura Highway was sold to Guyanese as one of the country’s great transformational infrastructure projects, a 121-kilometre road that would open the hinterland, deepen trade with Brazil and finally convert a notoriously difficult corridor into an all-weather highway. But four years after the main construction contract was signed, the project is still unfinished, its original contractual period has expired, and billions of dollars have continued to appear in successive national budgets.
The public now deserves a full accounting. According to official records from the Caribbean Development Bank, the main civil works contract was signed on **May 20, 2022** with Brazilian contractor Construtora Queiroz Galvao S.A. for **GYD $32.501 billion**. The contract duration was explicitly stated as **three years**. ([Caribbean Development Bank][1])
A three-year contract signed in May 2022 should, on its face, have reached the end of its contractual period around **May 2025**. It did not. By February 2026, the Government’s own Department of Public Information was reporting that the highway was **86 per cent complete**, with 100 kilometres of the 121-kilometre stretch paved. Government was then working toward a completion target in 2026. ([DPI][2])
That means a project contracted for three years had already moved well into a fourth year and was heading toward a fifth calendar year of construction. The latest completion target reported by government is **August 23, 2026**.
The central question is therefore unavoidable: What happened between May 2022 and August 2026?
Billions budgeted year after year
The financial trail raises further questions. The project is frequently described as a **US$190 million undertaking**. According to the Ministry of Finance, that financing package consists of a **US$112 million CDB loan**, approximately **US$66 million in grant financing from the United Kingdom**, and **US$12 million from the Government of Guyana**. ([Ministry of Finance][3])
But Guyanese have also watched large sums appear against the Linden-Mabura project in successive national budgets.
In **2021**, before the main construction contract was signed, government budgeted **GYD $3.5 billion** for the flagship Linden-Mabura project. ([DPI][4])
Budget 2022 provided another **GYD $6 billion** for construction of the Linden-Mabura Hill Road. ([DPI][5])
In 2023, government allocated another **GYD $11.9 billion** to advance the project. ([DPI][6])
In 2025, another **GYD $12.9 billion** was earmarked for the Linden-Mabura Road and associated construction and rehabilitation of 45 bridges along the stretch. ([DPI][7])
Then in Budget 2026, another **GYD $10.4 billion** was budgeted for works on the Linden-Mabura Hill Road. ([DPI][8])
These figures cannot simply be added together and declared the cost of the road. Some allocations include related bridges, some may represent Government of Guyana counterpart funding, and the overall project includes external loan and grant financing. But that is precisely why government should publish the reconciliation. Citizens should not have to reverse-engineer a US$190 million public project by digging through five national budgets, lender documents and scattered government press releases.
Where is the public project ledger?
There should be one simple document available to every Guyanese.
It should state:
the original contract value;
the amount paid to the contractor to date;
the amount paid for supervision and consultancy;
the amount drawn from the CDB loan;
the amount utilised from the UK grant;
the Government of Guyana contribution;
every approved contract variation;
every extension of time;
the value of any additional works;
and the revised final cost.
That is basic public accountability.
Instead, the public receives intermittent progress percentages and new completion dates. In May 2024, DPI described the project as progressing smoothly, but reported it was only **24 per cent complete**. ([DPI][9])
Less than two years later, government reported 86 per cent completion, while the project remained unfinished beyond its original three-year contract period. ([DPI][2])
What caused the delay?
Was the contractor formally granted an extension of time?
For how long?
Why?
Were there changes in scope?
Were there variations in price?
Were penalties for delay contemplated or waived?
Has the original GYD $32.5 billion construction contract changed?
These are not partisan questions. They are basic questions any government handling tens of billions of dollars in public infrastructure should expect to answer.
A transformational project requires transformational transparency
There is no dispute that the Linden-Mabura Highway is strategically important. The road is the first major stage in the eventual upgraded connection between Linden and Lethem, improving access to hinterland communities while strengthening Guyana’s land link toward Brazil. The CDB itself describes the project as upgrading approximately 122 kilometres of fair-weather road to all-weather standard, with improved drainage, structures and safety features. ([Caribbean Development Bank][1])
That importance makes accountability more necessary, not less. This is also one of the largest infrastructure investments ever undertaken with CDB involvement in Guyana. When the financing was announced, the Ministry of Finance described it as the largest single project ever financed by the Bank at the time. ([Ministry of Finance][3])
A project of that size should not be accompanied by fragmented public information. The Ali administration has repeatedly pointed to highways, bridges, hospitals and public buildings as evidence of Guyana’s transformation.
But infrastructure cannot be judged only by ribbon cuttings. It must also be judged by procurement, cost control, adherence to contractual deadlines, quality of construction and transparency. A highway that is eventually finished is not automatically a project that was well managed.
Guyanese should start asking harder questions
The Linden-Mabura Highway provides a useful case study of how citizens should examine major public projects.
The question is not merely whether a road was built.
The questions are:
What was promised?
What was contracted?
How much was budgeted?
How much was actually spent?
Was the project delivered when promised?
If not, why not?
Were additional payments approved?
Who approved them?
And perhaps most importantly:
Where are the documents that allow the taxpayer to independently verify the answers?
Guyana is now spending sums on infrastructure that would have been unimaginable a decade ago. With that level of expenditure comes an equally large obligation to account for every dollar. The Linden-Mabura Highway was contracted for three years. That period expired around May 2025. The project continued.
Another GYD $12.9 billion appeared in the 2025 budget for the road and associated bridges. Another GYD $10.4 billion followed in 2026. ([DPI][7]) The public should not be satisfied with another percentage-complete announcement. Show Guyanese the contract extensions. Show the variations. Show the payments. Show the revised project cost. Show why a three-year contract became a project stretching into 2026. That is not hostility to development. That is what accountability looks like in an oil-rich country spending billions in the name of its citizens.
