The People’s Progressive Party / Civic (PPP/C) has chosen to honour its election campaign vow to not touch a cent in the Natural Resource Fund until the overarching law is strengthened. Making this disclosure yesterday was Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo.
During a press conference he attended with President, Irfaan Ali, the official revealed that none of the money in the Fund which is held at the New York Federal Reserve Bank will be used for the emergency budget to be read tomorrow.
Dr. Jagdeo said, “As we promised again in the manifesto, we will address that Natural Resource Fund, to either repeal it or amend it. To make some changes there, and thereafter, but along with doing that, we will strengthen the transparency provisions as the president pointed out.”
The Vice President added, “Not only the budgetary provisions for use of the resources will be strengthened but also, a promise that we made of criminalizing non-disclosure will be put in place. We will pursue that, as soon as the budget is out, we will take a bill to the parliament to get that done. And so that’s next year.”
As at July last, Guyana’s Natural Resource Fund held US$94.9M. This represents the collection of royalties and the sale of Guyana’s share of profit oil from the Stabroek Block to Shell Western Supply Trading Limited.
