Part 117
Introduction
The International Monetary Fund and the Inter-American Bank have both expressed concerns about the structure and operations of the Natural Resource Fund, one of the PPP/C’s flagship projects directly associated with the oil and gas economy. This column would like to add a couple of problems it too has identified: the absence of any appropriate investment strategy and the rather more basic issue whether the balance shown in the Fund is accurate and legally correct.
Let us recall that the APNU+AFC Coalition had passed and began the implementation of a its own Natural Resource Fund Act in 2019 but this was strongly criticised by the then Opposition PPP/C as being too complex and involving too many people. It was no surprise then that the repeal and replacement of that Act was one of the first major pieces of legislation by the successor PPP/C Government in the first year of Irfaan Ali’s term of office. Just as a reminder, the most famous event concerning this Fund during the Granger Administration was the so-called signing bonus which the APNU+AFC Coalition had for a considerable time sought to hide from the people of Guyana. I describe this as a “so-called signing bonus”, because its real purpose was to pay legal fees.