Introduction
Discussing Guidepost 2 of Part 2, I began last week with identifying three general areas of public spending of petroleum revenues indicated by the Government of Guyana (GoG) thus far. Today’s column starts to evaluate these three areas, beginning with the first listed, namely, GoG priorities that are considered as “well underway” in terms of their present “conceptualisation and/or state of implementation”. I gave several examples of such priorities. I also indicated that most of these topics have been discussed earlier in the series. I therefore noted there is no need to revisit them in any detail, except the priority listed as the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), which is now legally enshrined as Guyana’s Natural Resources Fund (NRF).
This Fund might well turn out to be one of the largest, if not the largest area of public spending from petroleum revenues! Because of 1) the sheer size of this spending, and 2) the rather minimal public discussion of this item, I believe it warrants further attention here, given the Road Map’s strategic goals.