Latest update September 27th, 2024 12:59 AM
Dec 13, 2023 Editorial
Kaieteur News – In the hands of the PPPC Government the funds in the Natural Resources Fund (NRF) have become the equivalent of monopoly money. Leaders and functionaries in the government are having a grand time playing around with the money that belongs to Guyanese. Recently, GY$20.8 billion was withdrawn adding to the prior amounts withdrawn at intervals during this year. As matters stand currently, GY$176.8 billion has been withdrawn for 2023. In keeping with what parliament has approved, there is still another GY32.1 billion that can be withdrawn from the NRF between now and yearend.
The first question is where has all the money gone? The next is that given this huge total taken out, why are the Guyanese people, the many impoverished, still struggling so futilely to scratch out a living? Why is so little of the oil money, mere trickles only, reaching those who live with grim days, and worry about a bleak Christmas? Listening to spokespeople in the PPPC Government, one could easily walk away with the impression that all is aboveboard, and the best is in the works for Guyanese. Only a fool could fall for what is concealed inside the smooth, soothing cover stories always told by government operators.
“The PPPC Government will continue to work aggressively through sound and transformative investments of oil resources from the NRF, utilizing these resources in a clear and transparent manner to the benefit of present and future generations.” Those were the words of Dr. Ashni Singh, the man in charge of money in Guyana. It is the Christmas version of “national development priorities” with many glittering fairy lights to excite. To the naïve, or those ignorant of the way things work in the local environment, those words are comforting. The PPPC Government holds the interests of the Guyanese people close to its heart. Nothing could be more distant from what actually goes on in this country.
As revealed by the Auditor General, the withdrawals from the NRF are transferred into the Consolidated Fund, where those withdrawals are blended into the general pot of funds. Now that is an old trick long practiced by scheming clerks and crooked accountants with monies from different sources deliberately commingled, to use a word favored by auditors, so that whatever shady behavior clerks and accountants have in mind becomes very difficult to detect. Now, here is the Government of Guyana playing that old trick by mixing up the oil money withdrawals with other funds, as if to throw others, such as analysts and auditors, off the scent. It would be most helpful if the government, especially the Minister responsible for Finance, the same Dr. Ashni Singh, could provide some intelligence about what he has called the “clear and transparent manner” in the movement of these funds. No question, that withdrawals have been made, and clearly publicized, but that is where transparency stops, and secrecy begins. Because Guyana’s oil dollars disappear into the bowels of the Consolidated Fund, and no Guyanese (other than PPPC Government innovators) have a clue about how much, why, and where a single dollar of the money withdrawn has been spent. It is all a big jumble, and we believe that this is part of the concoctions and schemes going on to kerfuffle Guyanese.
We at this paper think that there is tremendous value in segregating the NRF funds, so that there is a distinctive trail disclosing how the people’s oil money is being spent. Meaning that each dollar is accounted for in the straightest and cleanest manner, so that even a CXC student would be able to follow and understand. In the event that Dr. Singh doesn’t know, that is transparency, that is accountability. Whether the PPPC Government or Dr. Singh agrees or not does not matter. What is mandatory is that Guyanese must know that the oil money is spent on Project A and Project B, and so much was allocated to each, which the books evidence.
This camouflage of “sound and transformative investments” is a smokescreen, nothing but hogwash, and a minister as bright as Dr. Singh should know so. Separate the oil funds into some subaccount, let the people know what goes on with their precious oil money.
Let’s show them the POWER we have.
Sep 27, 2024
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