See below press statement from the Guyana Oil and Gas Energy Chamber:
The Guyana Oil and Gas Energy Chamber (GOGEC) condemns in the strongest form the brazen vulgarity and disruption of the National Assembly proceedings yesterday by the Political Opposition – to prevent the passage of the NRF bill.
Guyana is on the cusp of accelerating its economic transformation. The government of the day was legitimately elected with a mandate to so do. GOGEC noted that the Opposition proposed fourteen amendments to the Local Content Bill of which ten was accepted by the Government side and the bill was successfully passed with those amendments, without disruption.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the NRF bill. The Opposition presented no proposed amendments, refused to debate the bill and instead – opted to disrupt the proceedings at all cost to prevent the successful passage of this landmark bill.
Yesterday (December 29th, 2021) GOGEC issued a statement fully supporting the bill and highlighted some of the critical components of the bill. More so, GOGEC highlighted that the bill is largely in compliance with the Santiago Principles on governance, accountability, and transparency.
While members of parliament may enjoy parliamentary immunity in carrying out their functions in the National Assembly, this should not negate the strongest possible action being meted out to the intellectual author (s) of what occurred in the National Assembly.
This level of political indecency cannot be condoned and tolerated going forward as it has severe adverse consequences for political stability and investment in Guyana, thus stymieing the development of the country.
Finally, for those who are responsible for the chaos that evidently seems to be pre-planned – the strongest action and/or the full force of the law be applied to the perpetrators and to prevent a recurrence of this nationally embarrassing display of political lawlessness and bullyism.
GOGEC calls on stakeholders, NGOs, and business support organizations to condemn this egregious act.
