In accordance with the provisions of the Natural Resource Fund Act, the Board of Directors of the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) and the Bank of Guyana (BoG) yesterday signed the Operational Agreement for the Management of the NRF.
According to a release from the Ministry of Finance, Senior Minister within the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh oversaw the signing at a ceremony in the ministry’s boardroom. It stated that the Agreement was signed by Chairman of the Board of Directors, Major General (Rtd) Joseph Singh, and BoG Governor, Dr Gobind Ganga. The signing is in keeping with Section 5 (6) (d) of the Natural Resource Fund Act of 2021 which states the Board is required to enter into an Operational Agree-ment with the Bank for the operational management of Guyana’s Natural Resource Fund.
Prior to the signing of the Operational Agree-ment, Singh provided policy guidance to the Board of Directors of the Natural Resource Fund with Budget 2023 having been presented on Monday January 16, 2023.
Also witnessing the signing of the Operational Agreement yesterday were members of the Board of Directors; Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Professor Compton Bourne, and Dunstan Barrow, along with Chief Accountant of the Bank of Guyana, Maurice Munro.
The release explained that one of the key amendments in the NRF Act 2021 was the strengthening of the governance architecture of the Fund through the establishment of a Board of Directors tasked with the overall management of the Fund, reviewing and approving the policies of the Fund and monitoring its performance; thereby separating the management of the Fund from the Minister responsible for Finance. In addition, a 9-member Public Accountability and Over-sight Committee (PAOC), responsible for providing non-governmental oversight of the operations of the Fund, replaced the cumbersome 22-member committee previously proposed. The Board of Direc-tors and PAOC members were appointed in August 2022.
In alignment with the requirement of the Natural Resource Fund Act, since April 2022, notifications of receipts of petroleum revenues are being published in the Official Gazette and have been tabled in Parliament, the release added.
