The Parliamentary Committee on Appointments on Wednesday formally presented to the National Assembly, the names of Dunstan Barrow and Clement Sealey for Director to the Board of the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) and member to the Public Accountability and Oversight Committee of the NRF, respectively.
The fifth report of the Committee on Appointments was presented by Chair Gail Teixeira who related that the appointments were made in keeping with the mandate of the Natural Resource Fund Act.
Section Five (1) of Part Three of the Act dealing with Governance and Management 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.”
Meanwhile, Section Six (1) speaks to the Public Account-ability and Oversight Committee and states that it “…shall comprise of the following members appointed by the President and one of whom shall be appointed Chairperson by the President – (a) a nominee of the National Assembly; (b) three representatives of the religious community; (c) two representatives of the private sector…”
The report stated that the Committee met three times between February 22, 2022, and March 16, 2022, where it discussed the appointments. At the first meeting on February 22, the government members – comprising Teixeira, Dr Vindhya Persaud, Kwame McCoy, Alister Charlie and Yvonne Pearson-Fredericks – suggested that the names of nominees be proposed after which the committee members would assess each one and decide on a suitable person.
However, this was not accepted by the Opposition side – Khemraj Ramjattan, Shurwayne Holder, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley and Annette Ferguson – which proposed advertising the post and inviting applications.
With no consensus, Teixeira and team submitted the names of Barrow, Hamley Case and Sealey.
At the next meeting on March 2, the Opposition held firm to its position of advertising the posts but later relented and submitted the names of Dr Vincent Adams, Vickram Arjoon, Romeico Ann Lanferman-Smith, Imole McDonald, Clive Thomas, Elson Low and Christopher Ram as their nominees.
The curriculum vitae for all the nominees were circulated for the committee to deliberate.
During the “lengthy discussions”, the Committee said that it could not arrive at a consensual decision on the nominees and as such Teixeira proposed that names be put forward and a vote be taken. With government having five members as opposed to the Opposition’s four, Barrow and Sealey were approved.
Prior to their approval, the Opposition refused to participate in the voting and as such, they were unanimously selected by the government members. Their approvals were ratified at the March 16 meeting of the Committee where the report was adopted.
Parliament will now vote on the names where a simple majority is required.
Earlier in March, President Ali had defended Barrow’s selection by the committee. Barrow is a former PNC Member of Parliament. Ali 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 they said? Christopher Ram was not fit and proper. That is why I am telling you; Agenda! Agenda! Agenda!” Ali had said.
