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Guyana to finally cash-in on Norway Funds

Apr 13, 2012 News

 

 

By Gary Eleazar

More than three years after signing a Memorandum of Understanding for support in the form of some US$250M with the Kingdom of Norway, the Guyana Government is now on the threshold of accessing and spending the delivered tranches of this money.
Now that Guyana has satisfied the rigid criteria – the money deposited by the Kingdom of Norway, some US$70M, of which US$30M has been deposited into the Guyana Redd Plus Investment Fund (GRIF) – the country now has an access that once proved elusive.
Minister Robert Persaud yesterday during his 2012 Budget debate presentation announced that Guyana is on the threshold of spending on projects from this account.
Persaud said that his colleague Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh, was on the cusp of inking an agreement for expenditure from that GRIF Fund.
This publication has been reliably informed that the two projects that have been approved related to Institutional strengthening project (OCC, GFC, PMO) and a Micro and Small Enterprise and building an alternative livelihood project.
“We are on the threshold,” said Persaud even as he announced that other projects are destined for the GRIF Steering Committee for approval.
The MOU was signed on November 18, 2009 but Guyana was never able to access the money to spend.
This angered former President Bharrat Jagdeo and on several occasions he had choice words for the World Bank.
Jagdeo was even labeled the “cuss down” President after he had verbally attacked the World Bank for refusing approval to access monies placed in the account.
In July last year, Jagdeo said that it has been a “nightmare” to unlock the funds from the World Bank.
The “tools” being used by the banks do not allow for easy disbursement, he added.
According to Jagdeo, a committee was set up to see how the World Bank is managing the so-called Guyana REDD Investment Fund.
The World Bank and the IDB are treating the money as grant financing, and “grants come in dribbles” and a lot of the money goes back to pay consultants, etc, Jagdeo had said.
“This is our money that we earned,” he declared. “It’s not the World Bank’s money; it is not the IDB’s money.”
The election of Donald Ramotar as Head of State fostered some optimism, as was repeated by Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon, who had said that there is a renewed sense of hope for an acceleration of the process under Ramotar’s Presidency.
He said too that there is a commitment on the part of the administration to have a transparent and accountable mechanism put in place for accessing the funds.
Dr Luncheon lamented that the collaboration between the partners in ensuring that a proper mechanism is agreed to has not been properly defined to bring closure in order for Guyana to start spending the money.
The partners that Dr Luncheon spoke of are the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations Development Fund.
“There are still outstanding issues, it is an annoying, frustrating exercise and has caused us not to access money that is Guyana’s money.”
Dr Luncheon said that the administration is on record as saying that, the normal engagement between governments, donors and grant providers does not apply in this case as it relates to the expenditure of the money from the Kingdom of Norway.
He said that the regular rules that apply should not be allowed to determine the nature of the engagement, when in this case, the money belongs to Guyana.
Dr Luncheon said that as it relates to grants and loans, the Guyana Government accepts that there must be certain stipulations and criteria attached.
“But this is our money…we have earned this money and we have difficulties in continuing to see frustration along the way.”

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