With no funds left in the Natural Resource Fund(NRF), the Government will be banking on development in Oil and Gas from the years to come to fill the account once again.
Just last night, the Minister within the Office of the President responsible for Finance, Ashni Singh, unveiled a $552.9 Billion Budget for 2022.
Of the sum, some $126.7 billion is said to be coming from the Natural Resource Fund (NRF ), which represents all profits made from the oil and gas sector since Guyana started production.
However, with the Gross Domestic Product(GDP) projected to grow by 47.5% in 2022, with oil and gas being the main contributor, Minister of Natural Resources, Vicram Bharrat has indicated that Government will recover, the sum of money taken on from the fund and more.
“That was the total in the NRF, but in the year 2022 our revenue, our proceeds from the sale of crude will increase significantly because that US$607 million would have been earnings that came from the Liza Unity FPSO, which produce about 120,000 barrels per day.
“Now we will have the Liza Unity, which will produce 220,000 barrels per day. So, obviously, the amount of oil per year will double that of Lisa Destiny.
And likewise, the revenue will increase, especially with oil prices so high right now,” Minister Bharrat noted.
This allocation comes as the Government just a few weeks ago introduced and passed the NRF bill using its majority in parliament thus replacing the former APNU-AFC Government bill on the Fund.
In the new bill, the Government has given the Parliament full powers with spending and scrutiny; the bill removes extensive powers from the Minister and vests them in new Board of Directors picked by the President; establishes a nine-member committee for practical and effective non-governmental oversight.
There is the new requirement that all reports and receipts of all petroleum revenues must be published in the Official Gazette and failure to comply with this obligation results in a harsher penalty of $5 million and 10 years’ prison time adding greater incentives for officers to be transparent and accountable.
One of the new clauses now removed a large oversight team comprising of Government, Non-Government Group, including Civil Society to watch over the spending of the funds and placed aboard, which the President will pick its chairman and the rest by the Government and the Opposition to now look over the funds.
This has been the major issue by Civil Society and Opposition, who insisted that persons will be picked based on their political affiliation and that the board will work in favour of the Government.
However, Minister Bharrat says that even if that be the case, the Opposition has all right to discuss and debate the spending in the national assembly.
“The Natural Resource Legislation, right there is a clear formula as to how the money will flow from the Natural Resource Fund into the budget. Today you have seen $126.7 billion is actually in budget 2022 and we promised scrutiny where anyone can scrutinize the spending.
“That will happen over the next two weeks when we have our budget debate when we move to the committees of supplies, where we examine the estimates that question can be asked on any single project.”
He said that the monies were taken to develop the infrastructure in the country, as the nation continues to grow and the country continues to attract more investment and build capacity.
