President Irfaan Ali yesterday mounted an impassioned defence of the bill for the governing of oil money which the government apparently intends to pass today using its slim majority but he still did not explain who was selecting members of the Board of Directors, a major concern of critics of the legislation along with the proposed rate of extraction of monies.
Staying clear of addressing concerns that today’s deadline is too short a period before the Natural Resource Fund Bill is debated, Ali justified his government’s actions saying the Bill delivers on a campaign promise made in his party’s manifesto.
“Why is there a need for a new Natural Resource Fund Bill? Why was it necessary for us to do this? That was a campaign promise. It was a campaign promise that we will have an amendment of this Bill for a number of reasons. The old bill is unconstitutional and illegitimate. It was passed in January 2019 after the No Confidence Motion had been approved. The bill has no legitimacy,” Ali said in an address on his Facebook page, titled ‘Discussion on the National Resources Fund Bill’.
“The act was passed without any input from the then parliamentary opposition who were not present in the National Assembly…the Natural Resource Fund also had a number of fatal flaws which we had to rectify before the Act could have been made operational,” he added.
Ali said that the Bill was not crafted in isolation as it encompasses transparent spending and investment to ensure holistic plans for development. And according to the President, the old Act has to be repealed because it was “severely deficient” as it had no governing body as is required by the internationally endorsed transparency and good governance rules in the Santiago Principles.
“This bill is not just a piece of paper, it is a bill that has to work in reality, it is a bill that has to fit in the national development priority and framework of the country…the macroeconomic framework of the country,” the President asserted.
“One does not need to second guess what are some of the fundamental elements of that development strategy or that economic framework I am speaking of. During the campaign I elaborated very extensively on what the agenda of government will be and how the resources or the revenue that Guyana accumulated will be used to achieve those targets; the holistic development of the country,” he added.
Growing apprehension over the new Bill that was gazetted eight days before its scheduled debate saw three civil society groups calling on Monday on the government to postpone parliamentary debate on it.
The Trades Union Congress, Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc and Article 13, the civil society group formed to promote inclusionary and participatory governance, called on Ali and the Government of Guyana to delay today’s scheduled parliamentary vote on the bill. The groups noted that this Bill was gazetted on December 15, 2021, and read for the first time in the National Assembly the following day.
“(A) Sovereign Wealth Fund is designed to impact positively on a country’s economy, its exchange rate and inflation rate and to prevent the Dutch Disease and worse, the resource curse, all over the short and long term. Indeed, the Act describes itself as “establish[ing] a natural resource fund to manage the natural resource wealth of Guyana for the present and future benefit of the people and for the sustainable development of the economy”, the release from the groups said.
Entirely unreasonable
“We consider it entirely unreasonable, even in the best of circumstances, for the people of Guyana and their parliamentary representatives to have just eight working days to consider the text and implications of undoubtedly the most significant piece of legislation of the PPP/C Administration”, they said.
Ali seemed adamant that the Bill will be debated today saying that unlike the past law which was debated without input, this Bill “makes its way through the debates, there again, we are not an unconstitutional government that is rushing the Bill through. The Bill is in Parliament for a full debate.”
The President contended that winning the 2020 elections is evidence that the population trusted his party’s vision for the spending of the fund. The formula for the fund’s spending, according to Ali is so “simple” that anyone can check on it and know how much is taken.
“Those elections, the people of Guyana reposed in the government the confidence to implement that agenda,” he said. Ali posited that that agenda sought to and has already started the journey to create among promises, 50,000 jobs, house lots, more disposable income to the people, better health care, improved educational opportunities and infrastructural and technological development across the country.
He said that while the opposition has rejected the proposed amendment, the Bill replaces elements left out by the APNU+AFC while it reduces the power of the minister and the large number of persons that would have provided oversight for spending from the fund.
“What we sought to do was remove the extraordinary powers that was vested in the Minister of Finance. The new bill drastically reduces the power of the minister. It introduces a Board of Directors and grants the Board almost all of the powers previously vested to the Minister of Finance. That power and responsibility is now vested in a Board of Directors., removed from the Minister. It is comprised of a multifaceted set of Guyanese…,” he said.
To criticisms of the likely appointments to the Board, for which he will be legally empowered to accept or reject, Ali said that the requirements for members should assuage fears as he will not handpick anyone.
He echoed the position that there will be a representative from the private sector and parliament, though these are expected to be people who are affiliated with or close to the PPP/C.
“The President would not just wake up and collect a few men and women and put them on a board and say this is the Board of Directors. The Bill makes it very clear the minimum qualifications of board members and stipulated in law,” Ali said.
He noted too that the composition of Board members will be published in the Gazette so it will be no secret who they are.
“I want to ensure Guyanese that in keeping with the law the Board of Directors will be something you will be proud of. The board has to be appointed. The shareholders of this country are the electorate. The electorate elected the government, elected the President. So who should appoint this board? Who should appoint the Board? The government was elected. I was elected as president of this country. Are you saying those persons who appointed the government though their vote doesn’t repose the confidence in them? I am saying to every Guyanese that you will be proud of the board,” he stressed.
“The Board has to be appointed but we cannot be critical of a board that doesn’t even exist as yet and we can’t say anybody will be appointed on the Board. The law sets out the minimum qualification. We can’t say the opposition is not involved because there will be a parliamentary nominee but more than that, everything that is done…the entire parliamentary opposition will be able to scrutinize and ask questions, then the auditor general then the PAC (Public Accounts Committee),” he added.
Ali said that when the monies are spent from the fund, there will be “no second guessing on what type of expenditure is to be made” as it goes into the Consolidated Fund which faces Budget scrutiny in the parliament and after that through the Auditor General and Public Accounts Committee.
Those levels of oversight, he assured, will ensure transparent spending since it gives the opposition input.
To citizens, he promised that there will be no wanton spending and splurges as “this is not the president or a government who will take the money to buy five Rolls Royce for the presidential fleet.”
Ali said that he will not allow the “development trajectory of our country to be derailed” as he had manifesto promises to deliver on and he will not be sidetracked.
“I have a positive outlook and campaigned on a manifesto that must be delivered to the people. As president and as a government we have a moral responsibility to ensure that manifesto is implemented. We have a binding contract with the people when we presented that manifesto and asked them to support us and they did. That is why we are in government. They have given us the mandate to implement the manifesto. There is no guessing. It is clear as light he said.
“I want to assure you that the Natural Resource Fund will be managed in the interest of every Guyanese, in the interest of all of Guyana”, he declared.
