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Norton, Fernandes accuse Jagdeo of hypocrisy over oil price warning
Presidential and Prime Ministerial candidates for the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Aubrey Norton and Juretha Fernandes
Kaieteur News – Presidential and Prime Ministerial candidates for the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Aubrey Norton and Juretha Fernandes, have rejected Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo’s recent caution against basing national development initiatives solely on oil revenues.
The APNU leaders argue that Jagdeo has no moral authority to issue such warnings, citing the government’s own heavy use of projected oil earnings to finance public spending.
At a press conference last week, Jagdeo responded to APNU’s campaign promise that its development plans can be financed by the country’s growing oil revenues alone. It was APNU’s Vice Presidential candidate Ganesh Mahipaul, who said increased production from ExxonMobil’s offshore operations eventually reaching 10 Floating Production Storage Offloading vessel (FPSOs) would more than double current earnings and provide enough funding for a wide range of initiatives.
For his part, Jagdeo warned, that this thinking was short-sighted, given the volatility of global oil prices. In response to Mahipaul’s claim that 10 FPSOs would generate double the revenue and allow for widespread spending, Jagdeo warned of the risks of relying solely on oil. “So, what if oil prices fall, say next year or this year?” he questioned. He added, “What are they going to do if you base the implementation of your promises only on oil money? So, what happens when it goes?”
In response, APNU’s Presidential Candidate Norton accused Jagdeo of being disingenuous and hypocritical.
He noted that it was under the Vice President’s watch that the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) withdrawal rules were recently relaxed, allowing the PPP government to access more oil revenues than was previously permitted.
“So, he has no moral right to question anyone, this is a person who said that feasibility studies don’t matter,” Norton said.
Notably, while Mahipaul said APNU’s plan can be financed by oil revenues alone, Norton insisted that APNU has never claimed its plans would be funded solely by oil.
“We made it very clear that economic activity will be stimulated across multiple sectors,” he said.
He also promised that an APNU-led government would manage public resources prudently and reduce corruption, ensuring that more funds are available to improve the lives of Guyanese citizens.
“So, our approach is totally different. Now we do acknowledge that oil prices can go down, but you know, Jagdeo should be the last to ask this question, this hypocrite went to Parliament and increase the money that you can take from the Natural Resource fund, so that he’s depleting the natural resource fund of resources, but then coming like a hypocrite to say the prices will go down,” Norton said.
He continued, “Didn’t he know that when he was removing all the money from the Natural Resource fund and spending it while wasting it…as he claims, that oil prices will drop, and [he himself] proceeded to change natural resource fund.”
Further, he reminded that under the APNU+AFC administration, the original NRF legislation included safeguards for long-term savings. That approach, he added, would be reinstated to allow for “continuous accumulation of resources for the bad times.”
Meanwhile, Prime Ministerial candidate Fernandes criticised Jagdeo, calling his warning about volatility “extremely hypocritical.” She noted that the PPP/C government had spent the past five years borrowing against projected oil earnings, while ignoring repeated warnings from the opposition.
She noted, “So to hear him now speak about prices coming down is the most hypocritical and nonsensical thing you can hear from the Vice President.”
She also maintained that Jagdeo had no credibility when it comes to fiscal prudence. “He is hypocritical. He has been borrowing and basing those borrowings of projected oil revenues and it is not his place to come now to speak as though he has any command over prudent spending of our oil resources,” Fernandes noted.
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