The Opposition APNU+AFC coalition is still considering an approach to the Courts over the Natural Resource Fund Act and whether it was legally passed. But even with that option on the table, the opposition is planning to put forward its nominee for the Natural Resource Fund Board.

Initially, the Opposition did not want to be part of the process for the Parliament to make a nominee, but it appears to have turned away from that position.

During a press conference today, PNCR Leader Aubrey Norton said that the Opposition is firm in its position that the Act was not passed but while it is preparing to head to the Courts it will submit its nominee to sit on the Natural Resource Fund board to oversee the government’s handling of the oil funds.

Norton explained that the Opposition’s non-support for the Act, does not mean it must sit and allow only the government to have a say on how the country’s oil resources are spent.

“In the circumstance, we have got to ensure that we have people there to scrutinize what is happening. And in that regard, we have agreed that we will nominate people while at the same time doing it under protest and signaling that we intend to challenge it in court,” the PNCR leader said.

The PNCR leader said the move to nominate a person to sit on the NRF board is in the interest of the Guyanese people and that at the level of the party, it will otherwise pursue the matter.

“In the real world of politics, if you leave the Natural Resource Fund without scrutiny, you will be excluding yourself from knowing what is happening and you will be making the ground much easier for the PPP not only to continue to expand its corruption and so we are taking a pragmatic approach that says we will challenge it, we will argue that it hasn’t been legally passed until a court decides otherwise,” Norton said.

As it relates to nominees for the Board, the PNCR leader said the government should have laid out a set of principles on who can sit on the board so as to weed out politically compromised persons from sitting on the board as independent personalities.

The party leader said the PNCR will work towards ensuring that its nominee is professionally competent.

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