Hours before an uproar gripped the National Assembly over the controversial Natural Resource Fund Bill, protesters outside of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) had been vocal in their calls for its scrapping.
The more than 50 protestors, chanted ‘scrap de bill’ and ‘stop de steal, kill de bill’ for several hours as they demanded the incorporation of the Santiago Principles in the NRF Act which was tabled in the National Assembly by Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh. The bill says the Fund will be guided by the Santiago Principles but several transgressions have already been noted by critics.
The Bill seeks to outline how the government is going to deal with the earnings from petroleum operations offshore Guyana. More importantly, on assent, it repeals the existing Natural Resource Fund Act of 2019 – which was passed post the No-Confidence Motion by the A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) government.