In the political limbo following the successful December 21 no-confidence vote against the government, the controversial Natural Resources Fund Bill 2018 was passed last night in the National Assembly with no objection as the Opposition side of the House was not present.
The bill, which will cater for funds from oil production in 2020, was passed with minor amendments during Jordan’s moving of the second and third readings of the bill. He stressed that a Public Accountability Oversight Committee – as catered for in the bill – will be appointed. The PPP/C boycotted the sitting as it says the motion of no confidence means that the government is prevented from taking any major initiatives in Parliament.
Jordan said that the Public Accountability Oversight Committee will not feature any representatives from the Government or any Ministry or the Opposition side of the House.
“Mr. Speaker, early in this Bill there is a recognition that accountability and transparency must be the hallmark in managing these resources. And no better than a watchdog is an independent council or committee clothed with the necessary legal and other provisions to undertake such oversight. And so, Mr. Speaker, after we passed the definitions and so on, which are important, we have a part three, a public oversight of the funds which will be done by what is called a public accountability and oversight committee. And this committee has the power in articles 6 1, 2, 3 and 4 to monitor and evaluate the compliance of the government with the provisions of the act, to monitor and evaluate whether the fund has been managed in accordance with the best practices of transparency, good governance and the Santiago principles,” Jordan said.
He further noted that it also speaks to providing independent assessment for the management of the funds, both in terms of utilisation and withdrawal. The committee will also have the power to facilitate its own public consultation and management of the fund and will depend on funding not from the national budget but from the natural resource fund itself.
According to Jordan, the committee will comprise 22 members including representatives from women’s organisations, the Bar Association of Guyana, the Guyana Consumers Association, the Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Imitative (GY-EITI), the Guyana Press Association (GPA), the Trade Unions, the Chartered Institute of Accountants, the University of Guyana, the Private Sector and 10 persons from the Regional Democratic Councils around the country.
He said that the committee is set up in a way to ensure that there is representation from every geographic region in the country so that they can have a “peeping eye” over the funds.
“We were careful not to have any political member on this committee. So no representative from the government and no representative from the Opposition. No member of parliament can be a member of this committee, no member of any ministry can be party to this committee,” he said, while stating that they want the committee to be as independent as possible.
In order to safeguard the committee from persons from taking over “permanent membership” he explained that nominee will only be able to serve a maximum of two years on the committee.
Jordan also explained last night that all monies will go directly to the Natural Resource Fund.
After his presentation of the amendments, the Bill was read again before being acclaimed by the government side
The bill provides for the establishment of a Natural Resources Fund (NRF) to manage natural resource wealth in an effective and efficient manner by (a) ensuring that volatility in natural resource revenues does not lead to volatile public spending; (b) ensuring the revenues do not lead to a loss of economic competitiveness; (c) fairly transferring the wealth across generations to ensure that future generations benefit from it; and (d) using the wealth to finance national development priorities, including green economy initiatives.
Section 3(3) states that the NRF shall be a public fund to be held in the name of the Bank of Guyana on behalf of the government and the people. Section 4 specifically caters for the NRF to be “managed according to the principles of good governance, including transparency and accountability, and international best practices, including the Santiago Principles.”
According to Part IV of the bill, the minister shall be responsible for the “overall” management of the fund as well as the preparation of the Investment Mandate and in doing so will seek the advice of the Investment Committee, be assisted by the Senior Investment Advisor and Analyst and enter into an operational agreement with the Bank for the operational management of the fund.
Also passed at yesterday’s session were a series of bills activating measures in the 2019 budget.
These are:
Bill No. 25 of 2018 – Corporation Tax (Amendment) Bill 2018
Bill No. 24 of 2018 – Income Tax (In Aid of Industry) (Amendment) Bill 2018
Bill No. 23 of 2018 – Income Tax (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018
Bill No. 22 of 2018 – Value-Added Tax (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018
Bill No. 21 of 2018 – Customs (Amendment) Bill 2018
Bill No. 20 of 2018 – Intoxicating Liquor Licensing (Amendment) Bill 2018
Bill No. 19 of 2018 – Tax (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018
Bill No. 18 of 2018 – Capital Gains Tax (Amendment) Bill 2018
Bill No. 17 of 2018 – The Property Tax (Amendment) Bill 2018
Bill No. 16 of 2018 – The Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018
