New oil law is to ‘legalise corrupt transactions’

Dec 29, 2021 News

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– Glenn Lall urges massive support at protest today

Kaieteur News – Kaieteur News publisher and advocate of better oil deal for Guyana, Glenn Lall, is convinced that the Government’s rush to pass the new National Resource Fund (NRF) bill has nothing to do with the wellbeing of the country or its citizens but has everything to do with legalising their corrupt transactions.

Lall shared his thoughts on the NRF bill which is slated to be repealed today during a discussion which was aired via Mark Benschop’s 107.1FM Radio Station. The discussion comes hours ahead of the protest exercise which is slated to take place from 10:00 am today at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal. Lall is urging all Guyanese to join the calls to safeguard the NRF.
“Even If you are not able to come down to the conference centre, come out of your homes and call your neighbours to discuss what this means for Guyana. No right thinking Guyanese should sit back and allow this law to pass,” the newspaper boss said.
Under the proposed Bill, the People Progressive Party (PPP) administration would be able to, not only access the funds, but do so without any supervision, since the Government has proposed to remove the 22-member oversight committee and replace it with a board handpicked by the President.
During the discussion, Lall was keen to point out that the amendments spell grave dangers for Guyana. “If this country allows that bill to pass [today] with what they are going to replace the old law with, we are in trouble,” he said. The newspaper publisher noted that having the laws amended to suit the agendas of particular governments is not new to Guyana. According to him, this practice has been replicated by both the PPP and People’s National Congress (PNC) governments. He stated that: “Both the PPP and PNC Governments have track records of passing and tweaking laws to facilitate their corrupt transactions. It is not now they are doing this…Both the PPP and PNC are quick to say, when they finish doing what they want that: ‘No laws were broken’”
“Now this government wants to install another law so when they spend the oil money, when they thief the oil money and do whatever they want to do with their families and their friends, they will say we are doing it legally. This is why they are rushing to pass this law,” continued Lall as he made reference to similar situation which unfolded in the South African nation of Angola.
The Publisher explained that the Guyana Government’s current proposal mirrors the route the Angolan government took in spending their oil earning. He stressed that by amending the laws to allow the government access to the oil revenue, Angola opened itself to be pilfered by that very government. He explained that in the case of Angola, the government threw away the Santiago Principles (safeguard) and told the people of Angola that the government and people should have a right to spend the oil money.
Lall added: “What they really did was to remove the independent stakeholders who were supposed to be safeguarding and protecting, not only the withdrawal of the funds but also to give them advice on how to invest in their oil money. Angola removed those people and the President of Angola installed his own handpicked people into those committees and guess what happened? The Minister of Angola went and withdrew US $500M out of their NRF and invested it in a deep water port, all in the name of investment for the people of Angola.”
He continued: “When the media investigated what that investment was all about they found [out] that the Angola Minister took that US$500M and gave it to his best friend to build this deep-water port; this is a man who never even built a latrine and when the media went further they found [out] that the people benefitting from this investment, it was the Minister and the man who is head of the oil fund – the bank account.”
He went on to say that the Minister and the man heading the NRF account in Angola were not only the owners of the investment, they tied the investment project to the State which meant that if that project collapses, they would still be paid. “So, they did not only steal the Angolans oil revenues, they guaranteed the project with State funds and guess what? They have no law to jail these people. This is exactly what President Ali and [Vice President] Jagdeo want to do with this law they want to repeal [today]…”
Given his analysis of the situation, Lall noted that when juxtaposed to Guyana the scenario is precisely in the same as Angola. He emphasised therefore, that if the citizens do not stand up and stop the politicians in their tracks, Guyana will open the door for similar corrupt transactions. “If we allow the government to remove the safeguards that David Granger put in place to protect the oil wealth and allow them to do what they are doing with what – to me – is a little oil money but it is what we are getting so far, it would be extremely dangerous for today and also future generations.”
Added to this, Lall said that with the change in law, the government will use ambiguous reasons to withdraw monies from the NRF. “The leverage and latitude they are giving themselves with this new law, they can go into that account and take out money to spend on two things; one is on natural disasters, meaning if you get a little high flooding they can call that natural disaster. They can call, they can use anything you can think about natural disaster and spend your money. They can also spend that money on green energy projects. I believe this is where they will rob you blind of every single cent…And when they speak of spending it on green energy projects they would say the gas to shore project is a green energy project. They can use any reason to withdraw the funds,” Lall warned. He said too that the new law will open the door for rampant borrowing.

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