105 laws passed in under 5 years, including landmark oil spill Bill – AG

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall has defended the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration’s policy development record, touting the passage of more than 100 pieces of legislation since taking office.
Speaking during his weekly programme Issues in the News on Tuesday, Nandlall underscored the government’s commitment to maintaining a modern and effective legislative framework, highlighting what he described as significant strides in strengthening the country’s legal architecture.
Nandlall was at the time responding to comments from the opposition on the recently passed Oil Pollution Prevention, Preparedness, Response and Responsibility Bill, a piece of legislation that mandates strict oil spill prevention, emergency response protocols, and accountability for polluters.
Highlighting that the newly enacted bill was well constructed and robust, Nandlall said, “but as struggled as they did, as tried as they did, they couldn’t find an argument of great substance critical of the bill. So, they ended up criticizing the government for taking too long to bring the bill. So that was the wrong committed, which the government was lambasted for. We took too long to bring the bill.”
In his response the attorney general stressed that this argument being peddled by the Opposition lacked merit, in fact Nandlall revealed that despite going into office late and working through a pandemic, the PPP/C administration successfully managed to develop and enact more than 100 pieces of legislation to date, several of which he noted are key pieces of legislation that govern the country’s booming oil and gas sector.
“We brought, and let me, for the press – I did a reckoning of the number of bills we have passed so far. So far in this parliament, with COVID and all the other challenges, we have passed 105 pieces of legislation for the 12th parliament, and we are not yet finished. 105 pieces of legislation, 105 pieces of legislation.”
Nandlall added, “We got into government and begun to sit in parliament of September of 2020, whereas we should have been sitting in parliament since March of 2020 and we were able to pass the Local Content Act, the Natural Resources Fund Act, the Petroleum Activities Act, and now the Oil Pollution Prevention Preparedness Response and Responsibility Bill and then we were also able to draft a model PSA that will govern PSAs in the future. Complicated document that took a few years to draft. Each of the legislation that I’m referring to, each of these statutes are landmark in their own right they are all technical and complex pieces of legislation.”
Additionally, Nandlall also bashed the APNU/AFC collation for neglecting the oil and gas sector during its tenure in office from 2015 – 2020.
“They were there from 2015. Since they got in, they knew that oil was going to be produced because we announced that before the 2015 elections. And of course, they signed the 2016 infamous lopsided profit-sharing agreement with the licensees and they gave the first set of licenses. They never passed one single piece of regulation, not even a subsidiary legislation, no legislation whatsoever.”