IN order to promote transparency in the oil and gas sector, a People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government will criminalise the non-disclosure of receipts from oil companies to the government, which will result in jail for the Minister of Finance.

This was disclosed by PPP General-Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo, during the launch of the party’s 2020- 2025 Manifesto titled “Our Plan for Prosperity”. The event was held Friday at the PPP/C Headquarters, Freedom House, Robb Street, Georgetown.

“Any money coming from oil companies to the government, if it is not gazetted within three months and notified to the Parliament, then the minister of finance can go to jail for an extended period and that will be passed in legislation,” Jagdeo said.

He continued: “That tells all Guyanese at the end of the year or any point in the year, we can know how much money we collected over the year from the oil companies and anything outside of that forces the political directorate or the people who are managing, including the minister can go to jail for it.”

Describing it as a sector-specific policy, Jagdeo said, additionally, campaign finance reform will also be made in order to prevent oil companies from subverting political parties, along with financing them to influence national policies in the resource sector.
“Policies can be sold to harm the entire country,” Jagdeo said while noting that the campaign finance reform will provide greater transparency in elections and corruption.
Further, Jagdeo said, under a PPP government, the Integrity Commission will be strengthened to ensure compliance.

Jagdeo added that the PPP will also take away the powers from the finance minister to issue duty-free concessions and other tax concessions.

“When you have politicians doing this, then you have a whole scope for corruption, so we will be returning to arm’s length processing of duty-free concessions, tax concessions away from the politicians which this government reversed,” Jagdeo noted.

He noted that the procurement laws also will be upgraded since it appears to be there for convenience instead of serving the best interest of society and tax payers. Additionally, he said that Cabinet should not be involved in approving contracts, instead only a no-objection should be given and if there is an issue the Tender Board should be written, as such no minister should be responsible in issuing any contract.