AMIDST the noise and chaos generated by opposition parliamentarians, two groundbreaking pieces of legislation were passed by the National Assembly on December 29, 2021. Coming just a mere three days away from the commencement of the New Year of 2022, this day will be remembered with shame as a result off the conduct of the APNU+AFC parliamentarians who descended to the lowest levels of parliamentary conduct as they sought in vain to prevent the passage of the Natural Resources Fund (NRF) Bill. The Local Content Bill was earlier passed by the House with some amendments but it was the attempted obstructionist stance by the APNU+AFC parliamentarians that took the spotlight, albeit in a perverse and unsavory way.

Regarding the Local Content Bill, 10 of the 14 amendments made by the parliamentary opposition were incorporated in the new legislation, an indication of the extent to which the PPP/C administration was willing to go in the interest of making accommodation to opposition concerns and inputs. Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat, who piloted the landmark bill in the National Assembly, highlighted the point that the natural resources of the country belong to the people of Guyana and expressed the administration’s openness to accommodate any suggestions that will add value to the legislation. Among the several amendments agreed to by the government side of the House, was a proposal by APNU+AFC parliamentarian David Patterson for the inter-agency committee to be replaced by a Local Content Oversight Committee. Other amendments agreed to were the inclusion on the committee of a representative each from the National Toshao’s Council, the Guyana Bar Association and a member from the parliamentary opposition. As pointed out by the Natural Resources Minister, the Local Content legislation is not intended to be cast in stone but has room to accommodate any new developments in terms of local capacity.

But it was during the course of a presentation by Senior Minister of Finance in the Office of the President, Dr. Ashni Singh in support of the Natural Resources Fund legislation that the APNU+AFC Members of Parliament  showed, as it were, their true colors and began to disrupt the parliamentary proceedings in the most uncouth and unbecoming manner. Not only was an attempt made to grab the Speaker’s Mace but they converged uncontrollably at the centre floor of the dome of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre where the National Assembly was being held.

It was indeed a difficult moment for the Speaker of the House to bring back some level of order and civility in the face of a prolonged period of obstructionist tactics employed by the political opposition to disrupt the proceedings of the House. The Speaker and his parliamentary staff did a commendable job to manage the business of the House and after several disruptions Parliament eventually re-commenced and the bill was finally passed.

The passage of the NRF Bill now paved the way for greater transparency and accountability in the use of revenues generated from oil. The bill in essence replaces the deficient NRF Act which was hastily put together by the previous APNU+AFC administration and rushed through Parliament without inputs from the then PPP/C parliamentary opposition and other key stakeholders. As part of the new legislation, any Finance Minister who fails to disclose receipts of oil revenues within a three-month period could face imprisonment up to 10 years, a clear move to guard against past excesses that transpired under the previous APNU+AFC regime when a US$18M signing bonus from ExxonMobil was hidden from the public.

The new bill, which now has to be assented to by President, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, will make it possible for withdrawals from the NRF to be made but under rigorous terms and conditions including several layers of interrogation including pre and post-parliamentary scrutiny as previously indicated by the President. The new legislation stipulates that withdrawals from the fund can only be used to finance national development projects or respond to major natural disasters. Additionally, those projects will have to be included as components of the national budget which will be subjected to parliamentary debates and approval.

Despite being dubbed as “the thieving bill” by the political opposition, the safeguards in terms of accountability and transparency as embodied in the legislation make it difficult, if not impossible, for the revenues generated from oil to be abused or spent arbitrarily or at the whims or fancies of any individual. Among the elements of the 2021 bill are built-in mechanisms to ensure that withdrawals from the fund beyond a certain level be capped to generate savings for future generations. Accordingly, in the first instance, the country will be allowed to withdraw the full amount now existing in the fund following which amounts would decrease progressively to a minimum of three per cent of any amount in excess of $2.5 billion.

Importantly, under the new legislation, the excessive powers previously given to the Finance Minister will be curtailed and greater oversights of the fund will be exercised by a Board of Directors which will be drawn from a wide range of stakeholders including, civil society, the private sector and a person nominated by the political parliamentary opposition.

Guyana is now in a much better place with the passage of the two bills. The entire nation stands to benefit from the oil resources which would have a transformative impact on the economy and by extension the lives of the Guyanese people as a whole. President Ali and his PPP/C administration deserves full credit for having advanced the legislative agenda of the country to a point where the benefits of our oil and gas revenues will be optimised in a most transparent and accountable manner.