Ali says Audit Office will scrutinise oil spending

Dec 29, 2021 News

---

…as Govt. gears to relax rules for accessing account

Kaieteur News – Senior Minister within the Office of the President, with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, will today present to the National Assembly, the Natural Resources Fund Bill 2021, which for all intents and purposes, relaxes the rules for ‘green economy’ spending by the administration.

This, as Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo has upped the ante in his defense and advocacy of among other spending, the proposed Gas-to-Shore Project, in the process blasting those in the developed world for already failing to meet international commitments.
Advocating the need for the project during a widely broadcast interview with social media personality, Mikhail Rodrigues, popularly known as the ‘Guyanese Critic’, the Vice President was adamant, “when we said, we would bring the gas on shore to build a 250 to 300 megawatt power plant, we made a promise. People voted for us because they wanted cheaper power.”
Under the new law with the relaxed rules, the Vice President was adamant there is still accountability since there must be parliamentary approval before all of the expenditure is incurred.
Meanwhile in his last minute pitch for support for his government’s Bill, President Irfaan Ali in a televised addressed said that the previous incarnation of the NRF laws included ‘fatal flaws’ that had to be addressed, including the governance structure and the need to increase accountability.
To this end, he pointed specifically to the fact that the Auditor General will eventually audit all of the spending to be had from Guyana’s oil revenues since the monies would first be deposited into the Consolidated Fund and allocated as part of national expenditure.
The President in his address to the nation said, “what we sought to do was to remove the extraordinary powers vested in the Minister (of Finance) by addressing these flaws.’
Additionally, the President was adamant the changes being promulgated by his administration simplifies and strengthens the transparency for making withdrawals from the fund; every single Guyanese would be able to understand what the formula is.”
This, he said, would promote a greater overall understanding by ‘John Public’ of how the fund is being utilised.
According to President Ali, the new law explicitly requires the Finance Minister to gazette information on all receipts into the fund within three months with this information being tabled in the National Assembly.
“So this whole thing about oh, we don’t know where the revenue is going, unlike what took place under the previous government—remember the US$18M signing bonus—the Minister of Finance now has to publish it in the gazette within three months, all revenue, all receipts that comes into the fund, every single cent of revenue that comes into the fund.”
Additionally, the President said too that the information would also have to be publicly tabled in the National Assembly, “so the entire Parliament which includes all members of the Opposition, the media, the government, would be there because it now has to be tabled in the National Assembly.”
Failing to do this, according to President Ali, will result in three to 10 years imprisonment, “so not only are we setting out the principles enhancing transparency but we are willing to put the harshest of penalties because we do not intend to keep any information in relation to the management of the NRF away from the public.”
With regard the spending aspect of Guyana’s share of its earnings from its sale of oil and royalty, the President said, “we are enhancing transparency by holding ourselves accountable.”
Addressing other features of the Bill that will cater to accountability, President Ali said, “let me be very clear, if the Budget is $300B, that Budget has to be approved by Parliament.”
As such, when approved, it would have to be implemented by the administration and under the existing framework, which the parliamentary Opposition is free to question any expenditure and similarly, “any project to be financed from the fund will be part of parliamentary approval.”
According to President Ali, when you are talking about the use of funds, it does not move away from the existing framework as in the Budget itself.”
Speaking to an additional layer of transparency in the spending of the oil resources, “all these projects that will be financed will be subject to Audits by the Auditor General, just like every single project in the budget now.”
This report from the Audit Office, he reminds, is then transmitted to the Standing Public Accounts Committee for a further level of scrutiny, “that is the existing framework; every single project that is financed is audited.”

 

---

---