VP exposes Nigel Hughes misleading claims on Finance Minister’s role under NRF Act

According to the Natural Resources Fund (NRF) Act, the Minister of Finance can be imprisoned for breaches under the Act, such as non-disclosure of oil money coming into the fund. This was implemented by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government in 2021, after the former government failed to disclose it received a US$18 Million signing bonus from ExxonMobil.
However, Alliance For Change (AFC) leader Nigel Hughes recently claimed that there is a loophole since there is no designated Finance Minister. This is despite the fact that Senior Minister in the Office of the President, Dr Ashni Singh, was gazetted as having responsibility for Finance since 2020. In his recent press conference, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo took Hughes to task for misleading the public.

“Now they’re concerned, oh the Minister will not go to jail. Because in this case, (they say) the President is the Minister of Finance. That is their new found criticism of the law. Not to deal with their own sordid past. So, if Nigel Hughes. He and his (party), they live in an echo chamber about how great they are and how sophisticated they are. But they’re shallow. Very shallow people.”
Jagdeo pointed out that once a Minister’s duties are assigned in the Guyana Gazette, this makes them responsible in an official capacity for that position. According to Jagdeo, the only time the President retains a portfolio responsibility is when it is unassigned.
“If he were to go to the official gazette. I thought as a lawyer they do that. And look at the official gazette of December 23, 2020, you will see that there are assigned responsibilities to the Minister of Finance. And you will see that Ashni Singh was officially assigned responsibilities for several things, including budget, public financial management including budget and accounting control, all of these come here.”
“Once they’re assigned, then the Minister is responsible. If their portfolio remains unassigned and ungazetted, then it remains with the President. These responsibilities were assigned since December 2020,” Jagdeo added.
The Vice President noted that if anyone had any doubts about who bore responsibilities for finance under the NRF Act, one merely had to look at practice. For instance, Jagdeo pointed out that Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton himself wrote to Dr. Singh, in his capacity as Finance Minister, when it came to nominating Terrence Campbell to the NRF Investment Committee.
In 2017, then Finance Minister in the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) government, Winston Jordan, when questioned by the media about whether Guyana had received a signing bonus from ExxonMobil, had denied knowledge of such a bonus.
This was until a missive dated September 20, 2016 and addressed to the Governor of the Bank of Guyana came to light, bearing the subject: “Signing bonus granted by ExxonMobil – Request to open bank account”. It showed that then Finance Secretary at the Finance Ministry, Hector Butts, had requested that a foreign currency account be opened at the Bank of Guyana in order to receive a deposit in the form of a ‘signing bonus’ to be given by ExxonMobil.
The letter stated, “This account should not be treated as part of the Bank’s reserves. Instead, the proceeds should be held in the currency of the deposit, that is United States dollars, and invested in secured interest-bearing securities.”
After its return to office in 2020, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government sought to create greater transparency when it comes to the management of oil funds. As such, the very next year the government passed the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) Act.
Among the legal provisions in the Act, is Section 33 (2) of the NRF Act 2021 which compels the Minister or persons designated by the Minister, to publish in the gazette, notifications of all receipts of oil funds paid into the NRF. Additionally, these notifications must be tabled in the National Assembly. Section 36 meanwhile states that failure to publish this information carries a fine of $5 Million and imprisonment of 10 years, upon conviction on indictment.
The funds in the NRF have their origins in the oil-rich Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, where US oil major ExxonMobil and its partners – Hess Corporation and CNOOC – are producing light sweet crude using the Liza Destiny, Liza Unity, and more recently, the Prosperity Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels. (G3)