PPP/C MPs on the Parliamentary Committee on Appointments used their majority yesterday to select former PNC MP Dunstan Barrow as their nominee for the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) Board triggering a walkout by opposition MPs who had favoured chartered accountant Christopher Ram.
It was the PPP/C MPs’ adamant stance that caused the opposition to walk out of the committee meeting saying that it makes no sense them being a part of the process when all of their recommendations will be dismissed.
“After submissions from opposition and the narrowing down of first six and then three persons… then two, the PPP/C said they wanted Dunstan Barrow and although I pleaded and reasoned, seems nothing could change that…,” Ramjattan told Stabroek News yesterday following the committee meeting.
“They did not want Christopher Ram and used all kind of excuses under the sun when it was them that said they wanted someone with financial and legal experience…the PPP is carrying on with its attribute of control freakism and it doesn’t bode well for the oversight of funds that will come in from the oil sector,” he added.
Barrow is a former parliamentarian for the PNC and under the Donald Ramotar administration had been appointed Chairman of the Linden Enterprise Network.
Sources close to the PNCR said that Barrow is no longer associated with the PNC. Efforts by this newspaper to contact Barrow yesterday proved futile. His name will now be presented to Parliament for approval. A simple majority is required.
An upset Ramjattan said that the opposition went with a number of names for both the Board of the NRF and the Committees that the Fund will have. He said that the combined opposition had Ram, Vincent Adams, Vickram Arjun, Ann Lanferman-Smith, Almolie Mc Donald, and Clive Thomas.
The PPP/C had as its nominees Hamley Case, Barrow and Clement Sealey.
Ramjattan said that he proposed a shortlisting of names and that process saw six persons extracted and further narrowing down saw three remaining.
The three were Ram, Adams and Barrow.
“Every time we made an argument something was put to counter. They first said he (Adams) did not have financial experience but when we showed records that he was in charge of US billion dollars spending under the Obama Administration. Then they said they wanted someone with business qualifications. We countered that he had a Diploma in Business Management from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). They said they wanted legal experience and we said someone who has all is Christopher Ram. They did not want to hear that,” Ramjattan related.
“This man [Ram] has been at the forefront of oil and gas matters here from the time oil was found. He is a professional and has the requisite academic qualifications and experience needed that they themselves were saying is needed. So they know they did not have an argument so they just said ‘put it to a vote’ and don’t want no more time,” he added.
Ramjattan said that he tried to reason with government’s side, saying that if they were so adamant on Barrow, then he could be one of the three persons that President Irfaan Ali can select to the five-member Board.
“I reasoned that if you feel Dunstan is this and that, why he doesn’t fill in as one of the (three) of the President’s appointees. This class and formidable businessman, according to them, can come in through that door. But the PPP just wants to dominate,” he contended.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had assured that the nominee selected by Parliament to sit on the Natural Resource Fund Board will be one supported by both the Opposition and Government side of the House.
“We want to make sure we have somebody that has the confidence of both sides and we will aspire to do that,” Jagdeo had last month told a press conference.
“I assure you that we will try to get someone who has the support of both sides,” he promised.
Clearly not the case, President Ali is now left to announce his choice of three persons.
In addition to the President’s three, the private sector also has to offer a nominee to represent that aspect of society.
But there seems to be a mix-up in processes as the Private Sector Commission has said that while it is the overarching business body for the private sector here, the NRF law does not state the PSC has to make the nomination.
It is why it will seek from government, formal correspondence that the PSC must undertake finding the nominee for the private sector.
PSC sources told this newspaper that when that correspondence is received, it will begin the process and will work expeditiously to find the most suitable person, making clear that they will not necessarily be a part of the business body but someone that it has the confidence in to represent it.
Section Five (1) of Part Three of the Act dealing with Governance and Management of the Fund says “There shall be a Board of Directors of the Fund which shall comprise not less than three and not more than five members who shall be appointed by the President, one of whom shall be appointed Chairperson by the President”.
Section Five (2) speaks about who the directors shall be explaining that they “…shall be elected from among persons who have wide experience and ability in legal, financial, business or administrative matters, one of whom shall be nominated by the National Assembly and one of whom shall be a representative of the private sector.”
