AFC flags Government over withdrawing money from NRF without oversight Board being in place

During a press conference today, AFC General Secretary David Patterson said although the legislation caters for the Board overseeing the operations of the Natural Resource Fund with powers to scrutinize how the money is utilized, the money which will be withdrawn to help finance the 2022 National budget will not be properly accounted for since the Board, whenever it is in place will only be able to seek information on money that is already expended.

AFC flags Government over withdrawing money from NRF without oversight Board being in place

The Alliance For Change (AFC) which is part of the opposition APNU+AFC Coalition has flagged the government for withdrawing money from the Natural Resource Fund without the Board which is supposed to oversee the fund, being constituted and in place.

During a press conference today, AFC General Secretary David Patterson said although the legislation caters for the Board overseeing the operations of the Natural Resource Fund with powers to scrutinize how the money is utilized, the money which will be withdrawn to help finance the 2022 National budget will not be properly accounted for since the Board, whenever it is in place will only be able to seek information on money that is already expended.

“The country will see how farcical it is that we have already gone to Parliament and taken US$607 million out of the NRF fund, there is no Board in place so the rumoUr and the myth that the Government is trying to say that the Board has oversight in the spending of those funds is another thing because we have already passed that. The Government didn’t have the decency nor the transparency or attempt to be transparent to at least have this Board in place,” Patterson said,

Even with the board in place, Patterson argued that it will be difficult to track how the oil funds will be spent since the Government has not identified specific projects that the money will be spent on, and has only said that the money from the fund will go to the consolidated fund.

Patterson said his party is suspicious about how the money from the fund will be utilized.

AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan shared similar views and went as far as to say the process of managing the NRF fund is turning out to be a mockery.

“What will that board do? Because it would appear the government does not know what the NRF funds has gone towards, what projects and so on. So what are they (the board) going to overall manage? What performance of the fund will they now superintend? It is all a sham,” Ramjattan said.

But despite those concerns, the AFC said it is ready as a party to put forward nominees to sit on the Board although the Opposition has not yet been approached to nominate a person to sit on the Board.

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