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PPP/C tightens grip on oil fund
– passes motion for House to nominate Directors
Kaieteur News – The National Assembly on Monday evening approved a motion by Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh for the Parliamentary Committee on Appointments to recommend nominees to serve on two boards governing the Natural Resource Fund (NRF).
Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh
Dr. Singh noted that a nominee from the House will sit on the Board of Directors as stipulated in Part III of the Act while another will serve on the Public Accountability and Oversight Committee (PAOC) in pursuant of Section VI of the new Act. Importantly, the political opposition was silent on this motion despite the fact that it had launched in-house protest characterised by a chaotic brew of chants, whistling, horn blowing and an attempt to steal the Mace when the NRF legislation was being considered on December 29, 2021.
In moving the motion, Dr. Singh reminded the House about some of the reasons why the NRF was amended. He said these include the fact that the old 2019 NRF Act was an illegitimate Act passed by Parliament after the then APNU/AFC Government lost a No Confidence Motion; that in the old NRF Act, the Minister of Finance had exclusive and far-reaching powers; that the old Act used a complex formula to calculate how much could be withdrawn from the Fund, leaving the general public in the dark; and that the 2019 NRF Act stipulated the establishment of a cumbersome 22-member Public Accountability and Oversight Committee (PAOC) designed for deadlock.
Minister Singh also reminded the Speaker, Mr. Manzoor Nadir and the National Assembly that the People’s Progressive /Civic (PPP/C) Government had indicated once it entered office that ‘unless those fatal flaws are fixed, not a cent will be drawn from the Natural Resource Fund’. He posited that ‘where the Minister of Finance had unlimited powers, those powers have been removed by the PPP/C Government’s NRF Act. Where there was no Board of Directors in the APNU/AFC’s Act 2019, under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic, there will now be a Board of Directors.
Minister Singh emphasised further that Government was clear in its intention to ensure that there was full transparency and accountability in terms of transfer of funds from the NRF to the Consolidated Fund as this would be scrutinised fully by the National Assembly during every step of the way.
In referencing the various criticisms of the new NRF Act, Minister Singh pointed out that, “In all this hullabaloo, one feature is striking—not a single soul has proffered or ventured a number (formula) to represent what would have been transferred under the APNU/AFC’s Natural Resource Fund Act.” He said that the answer was simple as it would have been ‘one man’ (the Finance Minister) who would have done so. “We have written it in the law that…nothing can be transferred from the Fund to the Consolidated Fund unless it is scrutinised by the National Assembly,” Dr. Singh reiterated. Dr. Singh also rejected criticisms about the President giving himself the power to appoint members to the Board. He said the President has been given a mandate by the people to govern and is the best person to carry out this requirement as set out in the law.
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