-must be in Guyana to complete process
Guyanese living abroad will also be eligible to collect the $100,000 cash grant with the caveat that they have to be in Guyana for the registration process and be in possession of a national ID card or passport. Further the grant has to be uplifted in person in the form of cash or cheque, depending on their location here.
“There is no residency requirement for the receipt of the cash grant. So that makes Guyanese living abroad who have an ID card or a passport also eligible for the cash grant,” Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday announced.
“However, they have to collect the same in Guyana, after going through a registration process. The grant will not be paid overseas. We have no intention going to New York or Toronto to register people there. They would have to be in Guyana to be registered here and they are eligible as Guyanese provided they have the requisite documents to prove such. This enormously simplifies things for us and does not discriminate against residency,” he added.
The Vice President disclosed that a software application is being developed to obtain data on collection and map out where people who register are located, thus making it easier for payments.
“We are currently developing an app, and even as I speak today it is being tested… the app would have some compulsory fields that people would have to fill up before the cheque is processed. Name, address, phone number, passport or ID number. They are building a geo-locator in the app so they can know where people are,” Jagdeo said.
He said once the names are processed in that app and verified, the apps would be cut.
“We are building a system that would allow us to process the cheques seamlessly and most of the payments will be done in cheques, except for the hinterland where we would have to have a carefully scrutinised system with the involvement of the Auditor General’s office, throughout the whole process, not just in the hinterland, but on the coast, verifying all of the payments,” Jagdeo noted.
He had said last week that as immediate plans are in place for the modalities of payment, most of the money will be distributed to citizens by cheque and in person. “We are hoping to do most of the transfers via cheques, not cash. In the hinterland… there may be a more difficult time to get cheques because people who live in the remote parts of our country don’t have access to banks…,” he had said
He said too that the government hoped to have the process completed in five months.
“We will start as soon as possible but the systems have to be in place to avoid corruption. Now with this $100,000, it will be easier because we already have the databases of our pensioners… public servants, et cetera. When we go into the villages and wards we will have to put in place a proper mechanism where they can take their passports and ID and verify that and then possibly receive their money in the form of a cheque,” he added.
Throughout the process it will be audited, he added.
President Irfaan Ali two weeks ago, had made a revision to his previously announced cash grant incentive, saying that instead of the one-off $200,000 per household payment, each adult citizen 18 years and older, will receive a one-off cash grant of $100,000. To be eligible, recipients will have to show proof of Guyanese citizenship by way of national identification card or Guyana passport.
Ali also said that his announcement last Thursday of a series of measures in keeping with his government’s aim of increasing disposable income, creating better opportunities, and building prosperity for all of the people of Guyana, which included the $200,000 per household cash grant, had to be revised because of a number of concerns raised.
“As is always the case with such initiatives, my government’s aim is to ensure ease of implementation, removal of barriers to access, and simplification of administrative procedures, always in the best interest of the population. It goes without saying that, in the normal course of implementing any government policy initiative, pre- and post-testing and analyses are critical to ensure the greatest impact and highest level of efficiency in the delivery of service,” Ali said.
“Over the past week, thousands of Guyanese have engaged myself and members of my Cabinet providing extremely favourable feedback on the measures I announced last Thursday, and tens of thousands have publicly expressed their welcoming of these measures. Particularly in relation to the announcement of a one-off cash grant of $200,000 to every household in Guyana, several persons have indicated to my government the complications they foresee in the implementation of this much welcomed benefit and fear of being left out,” he added.
He said that the complexities and some of the feedback that the government received included internal family conflict about access and internal distribution of the grant, a rush to transfer registration of utility meters, and a rush to prepare tenancy agreements, all with the aim of establishing a distinct household, as well as other complications that might arise.
It was to this end, he said that he instructed that the measures be reviewed to better cater for a wider cross-section of the population and to ensure that those who needed the money the most, got it.
Government has also announced that citizens can expect future periodic payouts.
“This is going to happen periodically in the future. It is not going to be a recurring thing every year as they are saying. It is dependent on affordability because we don’t want to become like some other countries that distribute money only and then they collapse some years later,” Jagdeo said.
“We are thinking about this. It is a sustainable thing for us. We can do this periodically – give our people some money and still do the infrastructure … balancing the interest. You don’t have to do one at the expense of the other. Our people can benefit, that is what we are about; balance in a sustainable way,” he added.
