Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, is not impressed with Government’s Green Paper – “Managing Future Petroleum Revenues and Establishment of Fiscal Rule and a Sovereign Wealth Fund” that was presented during the sitting of the National Assembly earlier this week. In fact, the politician said that preparations for the fund should have been at a more advanced stage.
With this reasoning, the former Head of State is contending that the paper – which he said seeks to assert the importance of the fund – is not a step up from what Guyanese already know.
Jagdeo says that the paper brings the discussion on the natural resources fund right back to “square one.”
During a press conference hosted at his Church Street Office last Thursday, Jagdeo referred to the document as a discussion paper that stagnates, rather than advance preparations in crafting the mechanisms to support the fund.
Referring to the Paper, he noted that it deals with things like ‘Why is a Sovereign Wealth Fund needed.”
“I thought we had passed this…We are back to square one…this is a discussion paper…this is where we are to a major issue…now we are still no clearer on when we will see Sovereign Wealth Fund Legislation, we have no timeline,” He argued.
Jagdeo said the document states, “It is intended to capture key issues for consideration, including the mechanisms to ensure sustainable use of petroleum revenues to achieve a diversified and green economy, with a specific predisposition to avoid mismanagement of the national patrimony that is, the resource curse.”
“Why are we still talking about this?” Jagdeo quizzed; reiterating his belief that plans should be further along.
The politician refrained from going deeper into the report; positing that there will be enough time to criticise the document, while “it languishes in some corner.”
