Opposition to submit nominees for NRF Board today

Mar 02, 2022 News

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…but holds out Act illegally passed

Kaieteur News – Though adamant that the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) Act was illegally passed in the National Assembly last December, the Opposition said it will nevertheless submit suitable candidates to sit on the respective boards as prescribed by the law to manage the oil and gas revenue.
Making this disclosure was Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Mr. Aubrey Norton during a press conference hosted yesterday.
Norton told members of the media that it is imperative for the opposition to be able to scrutinize the allocations of the revenue from the oil sector, in the interest of good governance.
He stressed, “If you leave the Natural Resource Fund without scrutiny, one, you will be excluding yourself from knowing what is happening, and two, you will be making the ground much easier for the PPP to continue to expand its corruption…but in the interest of the people of Guyana we will scrutinize and monitor to ensure we can contribute to a reduction in PPP’s corruption and to work toward the resources of our people going toward benefitting our people”.

The mere two month old legislation was passed by the National Assembly on December 29, 2021, amidst protest action by the Opposition which had criticized the government for not facilitating proper consultations on the document and for offering less than two weeks for scrutiny of its provisions. The Opposition was also against certain clauses inserted into the new piece of legislation.
Nevertheless, the NRF Act was passed and now provides for a member of the National Assembly to sit on the Board of Directors, which according to the law shall comprise of no less than three and not more than five members, whom shall be appointed by the President.
Importantly, the candidates for this board will not be a Member of Parliament (MP).
In addition to the Board of Directors, the NRF will also be governed by a Public Accountability and Oversight Committee which shall comprise of one nominee from the National Assembly, three representatives of the religious community, two representatives of the private sector, two from ‘organized labour’ and one from the ‘professions’.
When it comes to the appointment of these individuals, Norton said he believes the process should have been a transparent one where suitable candidates apply for the respective positions, rather than be “handpicked” by the President, Irfaan Ali.
He was tightlipped on the Party’s candidates to sit on the management boards, while reasoning that names were still being discussed, but would be submitted today to the National Assembly’s Committee of Appointments.
The Shadow Minister for Oil and Gas, David Patterson previously vented his concerns with regard to the powers given to the President to appoint these members, whom he believes may be inclined to do the government’s bidding.
He said, “We still have extreme concerns because the Act has no clear designations and qualifications in general terms like for legal or financial (persons) and there are no clear guidelines on selecting those people. I mean like what are the qualifications and the background for these persons and how its set up, the President will pick three on his own deliberations with no input from anyone”.
The MP argued that this section of the law drafted by the government, gives no room for Parliamentarians or even the regular citizen to challenge or question who the President decides to appoint.
Taking this into consideration, along with the fact that there was poor consultation on the NRF Act, and the symbol of authority in the House, the Mace, was absent during the passage of the Bill. Norton during his media engagement said that the coalition will continue to regard the Bill illegally passed.
In fact, he shared that the Party is still compiling a case to challenge the passage of the Bill.
“We believe the Natural Resource Fund (Bill) was rammed through the Parliament. We believe that there wasn’t adequate consultation. We also believe that with the absence of the Mace, it could not have been passed legally and therefore as far as I know, work is still being done to put together the entire case to challenge it,” the Party Leader explained.
Following the forceful passage of the NRF Bill in the National Assembly on December 29, last, the draft became law after being assented to by the President on December 30, 2021.
The Opposition had launched an in-house protest in the National Assembly, which was being held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre. The MPs had left their seats and began blowing whistles in the House to drown out the reading of the Bill, shortly after which one of the Opposition members removed the Mace from the dome.
Speaker, Manzoor Nadir, quickly presented a replica of the Mace and announced that the Bill was passed late that evening.

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