Campbell hopes PPP backs amendment to oil fund law

Jan 26, 2026 News

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(Kaieteur News) – Newly minted Member of Parliament (MP), Dr. Terrence Campbell is hoping that the governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP) would see merit in the motion he submitted to allow the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) Act to be amended.

The motion was submitted by the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) MP on November 3, 2025. The proposed amendment seeks to repeal and substitute Section 16 of the Natural Resource Fund Act in order to ensure that withdrawals from the fund are used in a transparent, accountable, and sustainable manner for development and disaster-related projects, and not for recurrent expenditure of the government.

Before taking the oath of office, Campbell a former member of the NRF Investment Committee, filed legal action in February 2025 to compel government to manage the revenue generated from the oil sector in a more transparent manner.

His application highlights serious violations of the Santiago Principles, which are explicitly incorporated into Guyanese law through Section four of the Natural Resource Fund Act.

These internationally recognised principles establish mandatory standards for the governance and accountability of Sovereign Wealth Funds. The government’s current practices violate Principles 2, 4, 6, 17, and 24, which require strict accountability, transparency, and responsible investment strategies in managing sovereign wealth funds.

The legal challenge seeks declarations that all withdrawals from the fund must be exclusively used to finance national development priorities, including green economy initiatives, and essential projects directly related to ameliorating the effects of major natural disasters.

Given that the matter is still before the court, Attorney General (AG) and legal affairs minister, Anil Nandlall SC previously suggested that it could not be debated in the house at the time.

To this end, Campbell during a news conference on Friday was asked by this newspaper to comment on the fate of his motion to the national assembly.

He explained, “the amendment that I filed in parliament, I fully expect will be debated…I honestly expected that we would have had a decision on the court matter by now.”

The MP noted that the decision was first expected by October, then December in 2025, but was delayed again to January. With only a few days remaining in the month, he is still not sure when the court will issue its ruling.

In the meantime, the MP told this publication, “I intend to pursue the amendment in parliament. We know that we don’t have the votes to have it enacted, but I believe it will lead to better governance of our oil resources of our oil funds so I am hopeful and prayerful about PPP support for that amendment, notwithstanding uninformed comments made by the attorney general.”

Campbell made it clear that he is willing to pursue the matter, which is confident about, to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) if necessary.

Court Action

In his application, Campbell requests the court to order the minister of finance to provide a detailed breakdown of all expenditures from prior withdrawals within 30 days and establish proper procedures for documenting future withdrawals.

This request is supported by evidence showing that none of the projects listed in the 2025 Public Sector Investment Programme explicitly identifies natural resource fund financing, despite the massive withdrawals from the fund.

Mr. Campbell is represented by Mr. Roysdale A. Forde, S.C., and Mr. Seenath Jairam, S.C.

Parliamentary Motion

The motion states that revenues from the fund shall be used only to finance— (a) infrastructure and development projects of the government, including any initiative aimed at realising an inclusive green economy; and (b) essential projects that are directly related to ameliorating the effects of a major natural disaster.

Most importantly, the proposed amendment to the legislation states, “The minister shall submit an annual report to the national assembly describing the stage of implementation of all projects financed by the fund.”

NRF transparency

Presently, government does not report on the specific uses of revenue garnered from the oil and gas sector.

In fact, Vice President and chief policymaker for the sector, Bharrat Jagdeo previously made it clear that the government will only list emergency projects being funded by oil money.

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.

Presently, oil money is transferred to the consolidated fund and blended with other sources of revenue. As such, Jagdeo pointed out that it would be difficult to show what specifically oil revenue was spent on. He reasoned, “How do you balkanise 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 itemises all of the expenditure of the state and how much is going to be spent…”

Section 16.2 of the NRF Act states that, “All withdrawals from the fund shall be deposited into the consolidated fund and shall be used only to finance: (a) national development priorities including any initiative aimed at realising an inclusive green economy, and (b) essential projects that are directly related to ameliorating the effect of a major natural disaster.”

Be that as it may, the government has not highlighted any national development priority or essential project funded through this source of income.

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• Natural Resource Fund, oil fund law, PPP, Terrence Campbell

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