AFC wants Government to come clean on oil money spendings

A claim by Opposition representative on the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) Investment Committee, Terrence Campbell, that its board is a rubber stamp and white elephant, has sparked concerns, with the Alliance For Change demanding answers as it sees Mr. Campbell’s revelations as troubling.

In a letter to the press last week, Campbell revealed that he sought justification on a number of occasions for withdrawals from the fund and those requests have been brushed aside.

At a Press Conference on Friday, AFC Leader, Nigel Hughes said it should concern all Guyanese that there is little to no accountability on how the oil monies are being spent.

“In other words, our asset, we the people of Guyana, the money that has been generated for us and the generation to come after, there is absolutely no scrutiny whatsoever by the investment committee, if we really sit down and think what that means, in other words this has really now become a slush fund a facilitating entity that literally carries out the government’s bidding when its primary responsible is to overlook what the government is doing with our money,” Hughes said.

The AFC Leader said because the Board and Committee operate and take instructions from Government, the country’s oil resources are at severe risks.

Last week, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said, it will be difficult for Government to show individual projects that the monies are being spent on, since the monies would flow through the national budget. He however, assured that the monies are used for Infrastructure, Health, Education and other development programmes.

But Mr. Hughes said he fears that the monies are being used for political purposes and to benefit those close to the PPP government.

“I want you to seriously ponder where we are when we have a government that is spending like there is no tomorrow, we have an oversight committee, which in words of one of the same committee has said that they are nothing more than a white elephant and rubberstamp the spending by the government of the day, contrary to the interest of the people, if this is indeed correct, we immediately call for those members of the oversight committee to indicate what methodology they have used to interrogate the government’s applications for spending and what is the professional advice they have sought before approving government expenditures,” Mr. Hughes noted.

Hughes noted that although the Oversight Committee’s function is to review, and examine the way monies are being spent, that Committee has not provided any information to the public, or within its structure on how the money it continues to approve for government spending, is being used.