Legal challenge to NRF Act should be dealt with expediency

Legal challenge to NRF Act should be dealt with expediency – Christopher Ram

Mar 15, 2022 News

By Rehanna Ramsay

Kaieteur News – The slothfulness of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) opposition to challenge the legality of the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) Act can lead to irreversible losses and consequences.

Chartered Accountant and Attorney-at-law, Christopher Ram.

This is according to Chartered Accountant and Attorney-at-law, Christopher Ram. Ram, in an invited comment to this newspaper, agreed that the matter should be handled with expediency.
Ram said, “The Opposition must act more swiftly on its promise to challenge the legality of the NRF Act because it is important to remove all uncertainty from the law. They need to move a lot faster, lest by the time they are ready all the oil monies will be withdrawn and utilised.”
The parliamentary opposition has been mulling legal action over the NRF Act, which the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) forcefully passed through Parliament without proper consultation last December.
Back then, it was noted that the government rushed to pass the law after it removed several safeguards that allowed for transparency and placed the management of the oil fund largely under the control of the President and the Minister of Finance. Under the new law, the President and Finance Minister, et al, are vested with sweeping powers to appoint members to sit on the NRF board.
Already, with its majority on the Committee of Appointments, the PPP/C disregarded arguments by the opposition in favour of their nominees and settled on their own choice for the board.
Additionally, the government has already signalled its intention to use some $126 billion from the oil account in this year’s budget.
“As it stands, the government is already moving in the direction of withdrawing the money, so that the Opposition needs to be faster,” Ram emphasised.
He stressed further that the NRF Act provides the perfect scenario for litigation.
“There are a number of ways, if you look at the Act, that it can be challenged in the courts. For instance, the constitution provides for consultation before a law is passed, that was not done, that is one major legal point that can be examined in the case,” Ram said.
Ram is not the only person who has criticised the “rushed” passage of the NRF Act. A number of civil society organisations, including the recently formed Article 13, have expressed disappointment at the undue haste with which the government rushed the NRF Act through Parliament, which they believe opens the door for misuse, and without regard for the Santiago Principles, which set out the basic tenets of transparency and accountability in expenditure of oil funds.
Speaking to Kaieteur News on the matter, businessman and founding member of the Article 13, Yog Mahadeo shared the view that there are certain issues of legalities that should be looked at, when it comes to the NRF Act. He explained that for instance, the budgetary allocation was made without a board in place.
According to Mahadeo, the government’s intention to spend the oil funds without a proper system of control in place is already a sign that it will lead to disaster.
In the meantime, the APNU+AFC coalition says it is still actively considering mounting a legal challenge to government’s passage of the controversial NRF Bill.
APNU+ AFC Shadow Attorney General, Roysdale Forde, SC, who contends that the passage of the Bill “constitutes the rejection of participatory governance as recognised as part of the constitutional system of Guyana,” noted too that civil society has been rejected from having a critical and essential role in the governance of the country.