Norton points to conditions being laid out to raid Treasury

Dec 28, 2021 News

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…we need to operationalise the fund so we can start; we have to start using the resources to build the infrastructure of the future, for the growth of the non-oil economy, for the creation of not 50,000 but 200,000 jobs in the future,” VP Bharrat Jagdeo

…Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, “and his greedy elite band in the PPP/C, are creating the conditions for the PPP kleptocracy to steal the Nation’s money that comes from the sale of oil,” PNC/R Leader, Aubrey Norton

…as Jagdeo attacks critics of proposed changes to oil account

Kaieteur News -Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, “and his greedy elite band in the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C), are creating the conditions for the PPP kleptocracy to steal the nation’s money that comes from the sale of oil.”

This was the view shared by newly elected leader of the opposition People’s National Congress Reform, Aubrey Norton, in response to a scathing attack on not only himself, as the PNC/R Leader, but a number of civil society non-governmental organisations, such as the recently formed Article 13 grouping, the Guyana Human Rights Association and others.
He qualified his description of the Vice President saying, “…the dictionary describes a demon as an evil spirit. The dictionary further states that a demon is “a source or agent of evil, harm, distress or ruin. All and sundry will agree that these definitions of a demon aptly describe the Vice President.”
Others, that have criticised his government’s push to amend the current legislation in place to govern the use of the revenues to be had from the sale of Guyana’s share of oil from the partnership arrangement it shares with ExxonMobil Guyana and others—monies deposited into the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

DEMONIC SPIRIT
The PPP/C has placed on the Order Paper, a Bill—the Natural Resource Fund Bill 2021—with its debate and likely approval scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday December 29.
That Bill, which is being promulgated by the Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni K. Singh and not Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat, is said to be aimed at establishing the Natural Resource Fund to manage the natural resource wealth of Guyana for the present and future benefit of the people and for the sustainable development of the country, and for connected matters.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, on Christmas Eve, during a widely televised—in the State Media and online—interview with Mikhail Rodrigues, popularly known as the ‘Guyanese Critic’, sought to defend the actions of his administration by outright dismissing the legitimacy of the extant legislation.
This, since according to him, the law in place is invalid, because it was passed without the then PPP/C opposition’s input in the National Assembly, and further it was done during a period when a ‘No-Confidence’ Motion had already been successfully passed against the then coalition, A Partnership for national Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) government.”
Norton in firing back at Jagdeo on Boxing Day said, “I believe that there should be civility in politics and therefore I did not want to respond to the rantings of a demon amidst the festivities, so I delayed my response to today. We oppose the PPP creating the conditions to be able to raid the Treasury.”
He went further to say, “…clearly, the intention of his (Jagdeo’s) comments is to shift focus away from his desire to remove Article 22 from the Natural Resource Fund Act, so that he and his greedy elite band in the PPP/C can create the conditions for the PPP kleptocracy to steal the nation’s money that comes from the sale of oil. We oppose the PPP creating the conditions to be able to raid the Treasury. We demand that you withdraw the amendments to the Natural Resource Fund Act.”
According to Norton, “the wanton waste of taxpayers’ money on the Skeldon Sugar Factory, among other failed projects, points to his ability to ruin anything he touches, and his entire time spent as President resulted in stress to the Guyanese people. This demonic spirit that has been unleashed on our people will be confronted and tamed.”

JORDAN PREVENTED SQUANDERMANIA
Additionally, according to Norton, the PPP/C has targeted Winston Jordan, Former Minister of Finance, and has trumped up charges against him.
“Winston Jordan committed no crime, unless you consider his creation of a Natural Resource Fund with checks and balances to ensure a wider participation of the Guyanese people in determining how the funds from the oil sector will be spent and preventing persons of Jagdeo’s ilk from squandering the nation’s wealth a crime.

It is not!”
In fact, according to Norton, “Jordan should be credited for taking action to protect the nation’s patrimony. It is time for Jagdeo to shed his evil ways and begin to serve the people of Guyana rather than himself and the rich and corrupt elite that have transformed the PPP into a Party of hustlers.”
To this end, Norton was adamant, “…it is becoming clear to every ethnic group that he is about self-aggrandizement and not about the interest of our people; we will hold him accountable; the era of do as you like, when you like and how you like is coming to an end.”
Vice President Jagdeo in his interview with ‘Guyanese Critic,’ addressing the Natural Resource Fund Bill, first tabled on December 16, last, said “we looked at what was passed and we had several issues with the legislation.”
To this end, he listed firstly, its ‘illegitimacy’ since, according to him, it was passed after the no confidence motion against the APNU+AFC administration before launching into scathing attacks on NGOs such as Article 13, which has since made its way to the National Assembly calling for a scrapping of the amendments by the PPP.
According to Jagdeo, “when I see this group of unaccountable NGOs signing a petition to the parliament and saying we must not consider the amendments until we get their clearance and that the Bill that was there was the most consultative Bill ever in the history of this country, it makes me want to vomit. That these organisations that pride themselves on being the conscience of society and they are the most accountable and safeguards accountability in Guyana, would want to associate themselves with a bill that was passed after the government had fallen, without any opposition input.”

USUAL SUSPECTS
Continuing his tirade, Jagdeo said the petition was signed by “the usual suspects, many of them were pro AFC or members of the AFC or APNU in the past but now they have reincarnated themselves into NGOs so we can’t pay too much attention to them and their gripe.”
According to Jagdeo, the change to the NRF law was promised, while in opposition, “we campaigned on it. People voted for us to do these things. We will get them done.”
Addressing some of the proposed changes specifically, Jagdeo told ‘Critic’ that his party was concerned that the Minister of Finance, in the extant legislation, “controlled everything.”
According to Jagdeo, under the Act in its existing form, the Minister of Finance, “was in charge of the fund, he named the macro-economic committee, he also was the sole person to calculate the fiscally sustainable sum that could be withdrawn from the fund, the natural resources fund.”
He posited, theoretically, the Finance Minister—whose powers exists as a delegate of the President—could have withdrawn all the money every year, “with a formula that is not transparent and is subjected to manipulation.”
Defending his party’s proposed amendments, the Vice President said, “we made it very clear in opposition we wanted to insulate the minister from the management of the fund, as a result of which we now put in the amendment a board of directors.”
To this end, he said this board of directors will include a member of the private sector and another from parliament, “so the opposition gets a chance to have an input of one of the directors there.”
That board, he said, is appointed by the President. Taking aim at the privately owned Stabroek News which had criticised the amendments in a recently published front page comment, Jagdeo said, “they didn’t have a problem with the minister managing the fund directly, but we are trying to insert a technical level of managers between the minister and the management of the fund and who best to appoint the board of directors than the President”?

MANIPULATED FIGURES
Defending the move Jagdeo suggested that if the board is a creature of the Minister then it is susceptible to the bidding of that Minister and said, with the amendment “at least the President can have greater oversight and then you have parliamentary input and private sector input on the board.”
Further defending the changes proposed by his administration, Jagdeo said, “we have replaced this complex formula with a simple one—that any Guyanese, from a child to an adult—can now understand how much money will come to the treasury.”
According to Jagdeo, with the proposed changes, “anybody at any point in time in Guyana would know precisely how much we would save. You not going to depend on the Minister of Finance every year manipulating or calculating the figures.”
Speaking to the removal of a 22-member oversight body, Jagdeo told his interviewer, “…imagine the Guyana Press Association was one of the oversight bodies for the oil and gas spending.”
Additionally, he pointed to inclusion of that 22-member oversight body that the APNU+AFC had put in place as, “organisations that have openly demonstrated bias like TIGI (Transparency International Guyana Inc.) who was muzzled in the five years when all the transgressions took place.”
According to Jagdeo, “we replaced it (22-member oversight body) with a body labour, private sector and religious groups.”
Adamant the amendments represent a major improvement on what exists, Jagdeo said, “we tabled it, we need to operationalise the fund so we can start; we have to start using the resources to build the infrastructure of the future for the growth of the non-oil economy for the creation of not 50,000 but 200,000 jobs in the future.”

 

 

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