The Parliamentary Opposition’s recent advocacy on issues, such as the Natural Resource Fund (NRF), has been criticised by President Dr. Irfaan Ali.
During a live broadcast on Wednesday, the Head of State branded the Opposition as exhibiting egotistical arrogance and willful ignorance.
According to President Ali, it was the Opposition who first passed a deficient NRF Act that, among other things, did not require the Government to disclose when oil funds came in.
“There was no requirement in that Act to publish deposits into the fund. Can you imagine that? None of us would have known about the deposits in that fund. Remember the $18 million bonus? Yes, that was what they were contemplating. To hide from the public, the deposits into the fund,” President Ali contended.
“So that Act had weak governance and non-existent transparency,” he further argued.
To make matters worse, Ali reminded that the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) passed the fund at a time when they had fallen to a No Confidence Motion (NCM) and, constitutionally, should have resigned.
“Through convenience of conscience, I want to remind them and the population, of who these persons are, what they embody, what they support, of who are the characters. In every movie, every script, there are characters. Some fictional, some real. But I would like to examine the real characters that have somehow found their voice of convenience, that is not based in truth or facts or law or reality. It is based on a convenience of conscience, aimed at one thing. Discrediting this Government.”
