AFC to formally seek answers from NRF on oil money spending

Last Updated on Sunday, 8 December 2024, 17:10 by Writer

AFC Leader, Nigel Hughes.

The Alliance For Change (AFC) would be writing the Board of the Natural Resources Fund (NRF) to get answers about government’s failure to say specifically how oil revenues would be spent by the government, party leader Nigel Hughes said Sunday.

“The Citizens of Guyana demand to know how their patrimony is being managed and disposed of,” he said.

No date was provided when the letter would be dispatched to the NRF Board.

In the interest of “transparency and accountability”, the AFC said in a public statement that it wanted the NRF’s Board of Directors to reply to six questions, in the wake of objections raised by opposition-nominated member of the NRF’s Investment Committee, Dr Terrence Campbell to the unspecified reasons for transferring funds to the Consolidated Fund for “national development priorities”.

That party wants the NRF to state what definition of national development priorities does the Board deploy when considering application for withdrawals from the Fund, if it has been provided with a definition or list of what constitutes those priorities or if government has provided the board with the parameters of what constitutes them.

According to the AFC, the Board needs to state whether it has received any request for the release of funds for national development priorities, and for essential projects that are directly related to ameliorating the effect of a natural disaster.

The party said it is also interested in knowing whether the Board has established policies for the fund, and if there have been any requests for release of funds.

Official Guyana government records show that US$607.6 million was withdrawn from the NRF in 2022; US$1.002 billion in 2023, and a projected withdrawal of US$1.586 billion in 2024.

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday said there was no reason for government to state specifically how the oil revenues would be spent, maintaining that transparency lies with the National Assembly and the oil revenues were easily interchangeable with earnings from other sources.