Jagdeo says nothing on penalty for misuse of oil money

Sep 17, 2022 News

…reiterates jail time for minister who fails to publish receipts

By Zena Henry

Kaieteur News – Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo maintained his government’s satisfaction with its handling of transparency matters relating to the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) during a special edition of The Glenn Lall Show on Kaieteur Radio on Tuesday. Jagdeo insisted that the changes made to the former government’s 2019 NRF Act did not weaken the legislation, but instead improved oversight relating to the management of oil monies.

The recently appointed PAOC members with President Irfaan Ali (centre)

The Vice President said that while his government has not received adequate “credit” for strengthening that law, it was his administration that made it mandatory for all monies paid into the fund to be made public with the necessary receipts and the relevant jail time for failing to do this. He said that Guyana is, “one of the few countries in the world where every cent paid into the fund, any receipt has to be published in the official gazette and Parliament has to be notified within three months.”

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo

Prior to the passing of the NRF Act last year, Jagdeo had said that four major sets of changes were going to be made to the NRF. Outside of publishing revenue receipts, he told the media that the government was holding to its commitment to jail the Finance Minister for not disclosing all cash coming to the Fund as well as revamping the NRF oversight committee which comprised 22 organisations, and the establishment a Board of Directors (BOD) that would separate the subject Minister and the Management of the Fund. The government has since kept its promise. The NRF Act gives 10 years imprisonment to the Finance Minister for not disclosing money received from the oil and gas sector. It has appointed a BOD and reduced the Public Accountability and Oversight Committee (PAOC) from 22 members to nine.

Opposition Member of Parliament and Chairman of the PNCR, Shurwayne Holder

Jagdeo posited that while critics claim that the government has weakened the oversight of the NRF that is simply not the case. “We did not weaken oversight; we have strengthened oversight in the NRF.” He reiterated instead, that four key areas of the law were strengthened including the provision of the receipts. He said even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would have said that, “…we have one of the strongest pieces of legislation because we have now, in terms of receipts…”

The Vice President was asked nonetheless about discipline for misuse of the NRF monies given that there is a penalty for non-disclosure of money received, but nothing to address misuse of the oil funds. The Vice President did not respond to that specific question, but maintained the availability of jail time where publication of receipts is concerned. On the issue of penalties for misuse of oil money, the government had in January offered no other explanation, just to say that it did not believe that there needed to be specific penalties for the misuse of oil revenues because the existing laws such as the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMAA) are more than enough to address any malfeasance in public office. The explanation offered came just one month after heavy criticism over the manner in which the NRF Bill was passed. The passage of the Bill has so far caused the suspension of several Opposition MPs who sought to stop it by removing the ceremonial mace, and are now before the court challenging the decision to have them out of the National Assembly. The Bill was passed in the early hours of December 29, last year and was assented to by President Irfaan Ali just hours later.

The contention currently, particularly where the PAOC is concerned, is that the members recently appointed to the Committee are questionable in that several of them are either directly or indirectly connected to the People’s Progressive Party. This was underscored recently in a letter to the editor by chairman of the of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC), Shurwayne Holder.

The previous government would have had in its 22-member oversight team, members from more than one transparency agency as well as a media representative, a representative of the Bar Association, and youth, among others. The current Act has removed those specific representatives, but maintained representatives from the religious community, private sector, labour, professions and a parliamentary nominee.

Holder noted that seven of the nine persons appointed to the PAOC, are known publicly to have deep affiliation with the PPP, while the two representatives from the Private Sector are a sitting Vice President and a former Vice President of the Private Sector Commission, which he insinuated leans on the side of the current government. He said that of the three representatives from the religious community, one is from the Dharmic Sabha which is led by a Minister of Government; the second representative happens to be the Chief Commercial Officer of a major Internet Service Provider and the Chief Executive Officer of that company happens to be the son of a former PPP Minister and brother of a sitting Minister, Holder said. “The third representative has known links to GINA and the Ministry of Health and is in fact a known critic of former Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and wrote articles to that effect.” He accused the government of “coining” the NRF Bill to allow them to determine largely the nominees from the labour unions since instead of allowing the two major unions – GTUC and FITUG to provide nominees, one representative came from GPSU (a breakaway faction of GTUC) and the other being the General Secretary of GAWU, whose President is a current MP for the PPP. Holder charged that the Parliamentary Nominee was virtually selected by the PPP through it one-seat majority and has been appointed by the President to chair the Committee.

The government had said that it held consultation on the establishment of the NRF, with Ghana being one of the countries spoken with. However, Ghana’s NRF law, as well as that of other countries, includes penalties for misuse of oil funds. Ghana’s law for instance says that “A person who (a) misappropriates the Petroleum Funds; (b) defrauds, attempts to defraud or conspires with another person to defraud the Republic in relation to the Petroleum Funds; (c) uses, attempts to use or conspires with another person to use information on the Petroleum Funds or documents relating to the Petroleum Funds for personal benefit or advantage or for the personal advantage or benefit of another person; commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than five hundred thousand penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not less than 15 years or to both.” It goes on to state that, “(2) A person who abets in the commission of an offence is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than two hundred and fifty thousand penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not less than seven years or to both.” Guyana was urged to have clear penalties in the development of it NRF so it does not run the risk of failing to serve current and future generations. This advice was provided by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), which also cited numerous examples from around the world of how often Natural Resource Funds become easily mismanaged, and the perpetrators, mostly politicians, go unpunished.

Holder has thus concluded that the current government is not serious about oversight of oil money. He said that it is “quite clear that the PPP Government has no genuine interest in transparency and accountability with respect to the spending of oil money.”