President Irfaan Ali on Sunday defended the Appointments Committee of Parliament’s choice of former MP and bauxite industry official Dunstan Barrow as a nominee for directorship of the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) Board which will preside over proceeds from the oil and gas industry.
The PPP/C used its majority on the committee to approve Barrow, a former PNC MP, over objections from the opposition which then staged a walkout.
“Is the representative a PPP/C person? The parliamentary process is that the committee selects someone of standing in a country and society. That process brings out a name. It is not that the PPP supported a person that is a minister or a member of the PPP. This is a former minister of the PNC. A former member of the PNC,” Ali said when asked to respond to concerns that government appeared to have used its majority on the committee to shut out the opposition.
Opposition MPs had favoured chartered accountant and attorney Christopher Ram.
The PPP/C had as its nominees Hamley Case, Barrow and Clement Sealey.
Sources close to the PNCR said that Barrow is no longer associated with the party. His name will now be presented to Parliament for approval. A simple majority is required.
Sealy served as the Deputy Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) up to 2015 when the APNU+AFC administration took office and did not have his contract renewed. When the PPP/C took office in 2020 he was appointed to the Board of Directors of G-Invest. It is unclear if he is still on that Board.
Case, who has had close ties with the PNC, was formerly Guyana’s High Com-missioner to the United Kingdom. This newspaper understands that he played a pivotal role in the Guyana/Ghana partnership in the oil & gas sector and had accompanied Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo to that country.
Ali on Sunday said that the public should focus on the three names as “That tells you how much interest we want on One Guyana.”
APNU+AFC representative on the Appointments Committee, Khemraj Ramjattan had informed that the opposition went with a number of names for both the Board of the NRF and the Committees that the Fund will have. He said that the combined opposition had as their nominees Ram, Vincent Adams, Vickram Arjun, Ann Lanferman-Smith, Almolie Mc Donald and Clive Thomas.
Ramjattan said that he proposed a shortlisting of names and that process saw six persons extracted and further narrowing down saw three remaining.
The three were Ram, Adams and Barrow.
However, according to Ramjattan, the PPP/C was adamant that its nominee be chosen and disregarded the arguments put forward for Ram and Adams.
Government sources said that the Opposition first championed Adams and Ram was promoted as a last resort.
Ali on Sunday said that the opposition APNU+AFC should be ashamed to nominate Ram for the post as during its term in office, President David Granger had had no confidence in him being Chairperson of Gecom and that pushing his name now is disingenuous.
“Look at the duplicity! When we had the nomination for the Chair of Gecom, remember what that they said? Christopher Ram was not fit and proper. That is why I am telling you; Agenda! Agenda! Agenda!” Ali said emphatically.
Ali did not disclose the names of the three persons he will choose to sit on the Board, but he maintained that he will have those persons as soon as the other two are nominated.
Section Five (1) of Part Three of the Act dealing with Governance and Manage-ment of the Fund says “There shall be a Board of Directors of the Fund which shall comprise 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”.
Section Five (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.”
