A day after the controversial Natural Resource Fund Bill was passed in Parliament, the PPP/C government is still unable to say who will select the directors of the all-powerful board and what procedures will be followed.
Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh was unable to answer this question yesterday when asked by Stabroek News.
Section 5 (1) of the Natural Resource Fund bill states “there shall be a Board of Directors of the Fund which shall comprise of not less than three and not more than five members who shall be appointed by the President, one of whom shall be appointed Chairperson by the President.”
The bill in Section 5(2) speaks about who the directors shall be explaining that they “…shall be elected 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.”
Nowhere in the controversial bill which was rushed through a chaotic sitting of the National Assembly on Wednesday does it outline how the Directors would be selected and who determines their eligibility for selection. This has been a point of contention since the government published the bill and a matter that they have consistently failed to address.
The government called a press conference yesterday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre to address the events of Wednesday’s sitting and to explain its decision to forge ahead with the passage of the NRF bill despite protests from civil society and the Opposition.
Stabroek News posed the question about the Board’s selection and the mechanism to be employed to Singh who ignored the question and pointed to the Bill which vests the power of appointment with the President.
“In relation to the process for selection of the Board, the bill is very clear about the process for the selection of the Board. It is the president who makes the appointment and in making those appointments the Board will include a representative of the private sector and a nominee of the National Assembly. To answer your question it is the President who makes the appointment and he makes those appointments pursuant to the sections in the new bill,” Singh said without addressing the core question.
However, the bill says nothing about the selection process or selector rather it says in Section 5(3) and (4) “the Directors shall be appointed for a period not exceeding two years and shall be eligible for reappointment. (4) The appointment of the Directors and every change in the appointment shall be published in the Gazette, on the website of the Ministry and in two daily newspapers circulating in Guyana.”
According to the bill, the Board shall be responsible for the overall management of the Fund; reviewing and approving the policies of the Fund; monitoring the performance of the Fund; ensuring compliance with the approved policies of the Fund; exercising general oversight of all aspects of the operations of the Fund, and ensuring that the Fund is managed in compliance with this Act and all other applicable laws.
Additionally, the Board is responsible for preparing the investment mandate while reporting to the Minister of Finance.
“The Minister may give to the Board of Directors such general policy directives in accordance with this Act with respect to their functions as the Minister considers necessary and the Board of Directors shall give effect to such directives,” Section 5 (8) of the bill reads.
Critics have expressed concern that the PPP/C government will appoint cronies and supporters to these board positions.
No amendments
The bill was first published in the Official Gazette on December 15 and came up for its second reading on December 29 and seeks to repeal the Natural Resource Fund Act of 2019. Since being published the criticisms have been heavy and the government’s seeming need to rush its passage has raised questions.
The Opposition and some civil society organisations had been calling for it to be sent to a special select committee so as to facilitate greater involvement of the public which would result in a bill that received bipartisan support. However, this call was ignored.
When questioned by Stabroek News yesterday as to why the bill was not deferred, the Finance Minister again evaded the question by stating that the Parliamentary procedures relating to the submission and consideration of bills were followed by the government and that the Opposition had ample time to submit amendments.
“It was before the House for a good two weeks and first of all the Standing Orders of the Parliament which prescribe the number of days between the first and second and third reading of a bill, those Standing Orders were fully complied with.
“This bill didn’t represent a completely brand new piece of legislation comprising 40 or 50 completely new clauses. This is actually a bill that replicated more than almost half the previous bill (passed by the APNU+AFC),” Singh said.
He added that the government was keen to retain certain parts of the existing NRF Act of 2019 though it did find them lacking.
“Where there are elements of the bill that we felt could be made operable and operational without causing great harm we tried to retain that provision. If you put the bill and the Act side by side you would see more than 20 clauses are an exact replication of the APNU+AFC’s Act and that is not by accident,” Singh added.
He further contended, without addressing the rushing of the bill through the House amid Wednesday night’s chaos, that the amendments were straightforward and if the Opposition wanted to add amendments then they should have submitted their proposals.
“If the APNU+AFC wanted to propose specific amendments for consideration they had the latitude so to do and they didn’t. They did propose amendments to the Local Content Bill…they didn’t propose a single amendment to the Natural Resource Fund bill and they didn’t proffer a single valid reason what their objection to this bill are except simply to say that they wanted to refer it to the special select committee,” the Finance Minister argued.
He accused the Opposition of having no plan except to delay, frustrate and derail the enactment of the NRF bill and Local Content bill.
“Notwithstanding that, they didn’t table a single amendment in relation to the Natural Resource Fund bill, they didn’t have a single suggestion what they wanted to be changed except that they wanted it to be delayed. So there is no doubt in the minds of any right-thinking person that their intent was to simply postpone, delay and ultimately derail the enactment of these two bills and therefore ultimately deny the Guyanese people the benefit that would flow from these two pieces of legislation,” Singh continued.
He was joined by his Cabinet colleagues Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat, Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Walrond, Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Minister Gail Teixeira and Sports Minister Charles Ramson Jr.
They all sought to attack the Opposition and civil society organisations for criticizing their actions. Bharrat questioned the organisations’ membership while Ramson accused them of having no credibility and of being politically aligned. They also questioned the relative silence from the organisations during the years of the APNU+AFC government.
Observers noted that the NRF bill was tabled sixteen months after the government entered office in August 2020 and there was a brief interval before the second reading and no period set aside for consultations.
