AS part of efforts to chart a pathway to the sustainable and transparent management of Guyana’s oil and gas revenues, the National Assembly has approved a motion which entrusts the Parliamentary Committee of Appointments with the task of selecting nominees for two major Natural Resources Fund (NRF) governance bodies.
The motion, which was tabled in the House by Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, recommended that the appointments committee identify two suitable nominees for the NRF’s Board of Directors and the Public Accountability and Oversight committee.
This next stage of selecting persons to govern the revenues in a transparent manner follows the enactment of the 2021 Natural Resources Fund (NRF) Bill, after it was passed by the National Assembly on December 29, 2021, amid massive uproar from the main A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Opposition.
The 2021 Bill essentially replaces the “inadequate” NRF Act, which was “rushed through” the National Assembly in January of 2019, by a “defunct” APNU+AFC government, which was already toppled with the passage of a no-confidence motion in December 2018. The 2019 legislation did not benefit from the input of then People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Opposition.
Unlike the old legislation, aside from a Public Accountability and Oversight Committee, the new Act also allows for management of the NRF by a Board of Directors, which will be responsible for reviewing and approving the policies of the fund and monitoring its performance, thereby completely separating the management of the fund from the minister responsible for finance.
According to Part III of the new Act, governance and management of the fund shall be selected from among persons who have wide experience and ability in legal, financial business or administrative matters, one of whom shall be nominated by the National Assembly and one of whom shall be a representative of the private sector.
In defending the government’s decision to introduce those new measures of governance, Dr. Singh reminded the National Assembly that the old Act, in addition to giving the Minister of Finance exclusive and far-reaching powers, used a complex formula to calculate how much could be withdrawn from the fund.
Further, the 2019 NRF Act stipulated the establishment of a “cumbersome” 22-member Public Accountability and Oversight Committee, which was designed for deadlock
Minister Singh also reminded the Speaker and the National Assembly that the PPP/C Government had indicated once it entered office that unless those “fatal flaws” are fixed, not a cent will be drawn from the Natural Resource Fund. Currently, there is US$607 million in the fund, which is housed at the US Federal Reserve Bank.
Dr. Singh said that where the Minister of Finance had unlimited powers, those powers have been removed as a result of the PPP/C Government’s NRF Act.
“Where there was no Board of Directors in the APNU+AFC’s Act 2019, under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s there will now be a Board of Directors,” the senior minister said.
He added that the government was clear in its intention to ensure that there was full transparency and accountability in terms of transfer of funds from the NRF to the Consolidated Fund, as this process would be fully scrutinised by the National Assembly.
“Sir, the Natural Resource Fund belongs to the people of Guyana. The people of Guyana own this fund and the people of Guyana must understand the basis on which the amount to be transferred from the fund is calculated,” he added, noting that in the old Act, this calculation was not established.
In referencing the various criticisms of the new NRF Act, Minister Singh said: “In all this hullabaloo, one feature is striking; not a single soul has proffered or ventured a number (formula) to represent what would have been transferred under the APNU+AFC’s Natural Resource Fund Act.”
He said that the answer was simple, as it would have been “one man” who would have done so.
“We have written it in the law that every single cent be transferred to the Consolidated Fund, that nothing can be transferred from the Fund to the Consolidated Fund unless it is scrutinised by the National Assembly,” Dr. Singh reiterated.
He added: “They made a big fuss about the President appointing members to the Board, but none of them had a problem with the minister [Finance Minister] being appointed by the President having all the powers in the Act, but they have a problem with the President appointing five persons to the Board.
“This President has a mandate by the people of Guyana to govern ….and on top of that sir, the fact that the Board has a nominee of the National Assembly…that sir is an even further positive architecture in the new Act.”
