Govt. Bill recognizes Granger’s Oil Fund lawfully in place

Dec 29, 2021 News

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…even as Pres. Ali, Jagdeo disingenuously calls account ‘illegitimate’

Kaieteur News – The proposed Natural Resources Fund (NRF) Bill of 2021—scheduled for debate and possibly approval in the National Assembly—is not an amendment to the existing legislation, but is in fact a Bill that proposes to replace an Act already in place.As such, it would mean that despite the Peoples Progressive Party Civics’ (PPP/C),

public postulation on the illegitimacy of the legislation, particularly articulated by Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, its own Bill recognises the legitimacy of the David Granger administration’s NRF Act as an existing law.

REPEAL vs AMEND
This much is evident in the proposed NRF Bill of 2021, being promulgated by Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni K. Singh.
According to the proposed Bill, at Clause 47—its final clause—it reads, “The Natural Resource Act 2019 is repealed.” As such, it would mean that with the passage of the proposed legislation, the Bill would in fact, remove from Guyana’s law books, the law that was passed and assented to by then President David Granger. It should be noted that despite the legislation being assented to by Granger during a time when a ‘No-Confidence’ motion had been successfully passed against his administration, it was determined that he was still Executive President at the time—until his successor, Irfaan Ali was sworn in on August 20, last year.
The Vice President in a recently aired interview with Mikhail Rodrigues, popularly known as the ‘Guyanese Critic,’ publicly dismissed the law as illegitimate—despite his administration’s own Bill recognising its legitimacy, hence the need for a repeal clause being inserted.

ILLEGITIMATE
The President in an 11th hour appeal yesterday also parroted the sentiments of his ‘Deputy,’ calling the oil fund—in the Ney York Federal Reserve—Illegitimate. According to President Ali, during the elections campaign, he had elaborated extensively “what the agenda of the government would be and how the resources of Guyana, how the revenue that Guyana accumulates would be used…”

To this end, he was adamant that there is a need for a new NRF Bill. “Why is it necessary, why was it necessary for us to do this?”
According to the President, “this was a campaign promise. It was a campaign promise that we are going to have an amendment of this bill for a number of reasons.”
As such he stated, “the old Bill is unconstitutional and illegitimate” and adumbrated “we seem to forget that this Bill was passed in January 2019, after the No Confidence Motion had been approved.” To this end, the President was disingenuously adamant, “the Bill has no legitimacy; it was passed in Parliament after the No Confidence (Motion), so it’s unconstitutional.”
He further took umbrage to the fact that the Act was passed in the House without an input from the opposition—something the PPP/C has done repeatedly while in government when the opposition is absent. According to President Ali, at the time “we were not present because the National Assembly ceased to exist, not the National Assembly, the government ceased to exist because the no confidence motion was passed.”
Additionally, he lamented the NRF 2019 Act, had a number of fatal flaws “which we had to rectify.”

 

NEED TO SPEND

It would be apposite to note, this is being attempted not through amendments as intimated by President Ali, but through a Bill meant to repeal the existing legislation being criticised by both President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo. The Vice President Jagdeo in his interview with ‘Guyanese Critic,’ while 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 first listed 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, which has gained the attention of the National Assembly by way of a petition 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 safeguard accountability in Guyana, would want to associate themselves with a bill that was passed after the government had fallen, without any opposition input.”

The Bill, referenced by Jagdeo in his interview with the ‘Guyanese Critic’ is the Bill, later approved and assented to by Granger—since also recognised as a Law, in the proposed NRF Bill of 2021. Jagdeo in lashing out at the criticisms against the move by his administration to replace the legislation put in place by the David Granger government 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.” Adamant the PPP/C’s replacement represent a major improvement on what exists—again recognising 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.”

 

See pix as Irfaan

Caption: The President in an 11th hour appeal yesterday parroted the sentiments of his ‘Deputy’ calling the oil fund—in the Ney York Federal Reserve—Illegitimate

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