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Opposition MP presses Gov’t to give breakdown of oil money expenditure
Kaieteur News- As the Government of Guyana (GoG) continues to refuse to provide a detailed breakdown on the use of resources from the oil and gas sector, the Opposition has called out the administration for what it believes is lawless and disrespectful.
Shadow Minister of Natural Resources, Shurwayne Holder, on Day Two of the ongoing 2025 Budget debate, pointed out that the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, accounted for every dollar spent from the money received from Norway through the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
Shadow Minister of Natural Resources, Shurwayne Holder
On the other hand, Holder observed that government has blatantly refused to account for the hundreds of billions of dollars withdrawn from the Natural Resource Fund (NRF)- the country’s oil account.
To this end, the Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) said, “Mr. Speaker, they accounted to the Norwegians for their LCDS money but when it comes to our oil money, the PPP continues to violate their own law which they brought to this very House and approved by themselves in December 2021.”
Holder reminded the National Assembly that the NRF Act makes it clear that all withdrawals from the Fund shall be deposited into the Consolidated Fund and shall be used only to finance national development priorities and/or essential projects that are directly related to ameliorating the effects of a major natural disaster.
To this end, Holder reiterated calls from the Opposition for government to state projects and programmes being funded through oil revenue.
Previously, the Chief Policymaker for the oil and gas sector, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo explained that it would be difficult to show how the resources garnered from the sector are utilized.
He reasoned, “How do you balkanize revenue coming into the budget? (It) becomes a very difficult thing to do. So, where the transparency is done – transparency is that every cent spent from oil money, from non-oil revenue and from borrowing, has to be appropriated by the National Assembly through a Budgetary Appropriation Process, whether it is the original Budget or through Supplementary Budgets which then form an appropriation act or a supplementary appropriation act, which itemizes all of the expenditure of the state and how much is going to be spent…”
This explanation attracted criticism from both the Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Nigel Hughes and former Finance Minister, Winston Jordan who argued that in the absence of transparency, the NRF has become a slush fund for the government. Jagdeo, however, said that providing a breakdown of how the resources are used is not a legal requirement of the Natural Resource Fund Act of 2021.
To this end, he noted that government would only identify projects funded by oil money which was withdrawn for emergency purposes.
He explained, “Outside of this annual withdrawal which is captured by a ceiling now and formula…government can draw down money for one specific additional purpose that’s in case we have a national emergency for example a major flood disaster or a tsunami…in that case there is no ceiling but you can’t go and say, ‘Oh, I’m forecasting’. You have to give the projects and the specific use of the Fund if you trigger that provision of the law.”
He pointed out that that provision was never triggered. “So that’s the only case where you have to detail the expenditure made from the oil revenue to have the withdrawal done,” Jagdeo said.
(Opposition MP presses Gov’t to give breakdown of oil money expenditure)
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