Legal action looms over NRF’s opaque transfer of oil revenues – Campbell

Last Updated on Sunday, 8 December 2024, 17:21 by Denis Chabrol

Opposition-nominated member of the Investment Committee of the Natural Resources Fund (NRF), Dr Terrence Campbell on Sunday said he would be formally asking the Board to explain why transfers of oil revenues to the Consolidated Fund are done without specific information from government about how the monies would be spent.

“It’s not off the table,” when asked whether legal action would be taken if there is no change by the NRF Board, Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Guyana.

He hoped that since Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo’s public pronouncement last Thursday he would re-examine the mechanism for “greater specificity”, not “granular detail”, on what the transfers would be used for. The city businessman said the funds could be deposited in a separate account at the Bank of Guyana so that their usage could be monitored by the NRF’s Public Accountability Committee.

“I’m hoping that maturity will prevail and we’ll see some change,” said Campbell, the holder of a Doctorate in Business Administration from Edinburgh Napier University in the United Kingdom.

Prior to going public, Dr Campbell said he had raised his concerns and the response he received was “not satisfactory.” He said his next step would be made in another 30 days.

He said he was looking forward to the NRF Board’s response to questions by Alliance For Change (AFC) Leader, Nigel Hughes as there are serious procedural issues related to withdrawals. Dr Campbell said he did not ask the AFC Leader to write the NRF Board.

The NRF Investment Committee member challenged Mr Jagdeo’s implied contention that the funds were comingled and that there was no need to state how each source of revenue would be spent. “It’s a windfall for the country,” he said. Dr Campbell said since Guyana discovered oil in 2015, there had been concerns about corruption, the need to spend oil revenues wisely and the Dutch disease. Jagdeo last week questioned the logic of listing how the oil revenues would be spent. ““What sense does it make?…So next year, should we start saying oil money should only go to infrastructure and nothing else?” he questioned then. He also said that accountability for the funds ultimately rests with the National Assembly through an Appropriations Act or Supplementary Budgetary Act.

Noting that Guyana would have been in serious economic trouble if there were no oil revenues compared to non-oil economic growth of 12.6 percent at mid-2024, Dr Campbell reasoned that non-oil growth would have been much lower because it was driven by construction that is tied to the oil sector. “Construction is intimately tied to the oil sector so what I’m saying to you is that I am not impressed by non-oil economic growth so these oil funds, they have been a saviour to us and this is what makes them special and it’s a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity Guyana has gotten a windfall and we must receive them and we must invest them wisely so as to give Guyana the foundation for economic growth for generations to come,” he said.

Due to the depletion of the NRF, Dr Campbell said neither the Investment Committee nor the Public Accountability and Oversight Committee makes sense and that he would be donating his GY$100,000 monthly stipend to the Beacon Foundation to assist with the care of prostate cancer patients.