It now appears that only half of the persons eligible for the much talked about $100,000 grant will receive it before yearend.
This is despite an assurance by President Irfaan Ali at a press conference earlier this month that most of the eligible will receive the grant before Christmas.
Ever since President Ali first made the announcement of the grant at a special sitting of Parliament on October 10 there has been confusion around the substance of the payout and also the process.
After announcing that each household in the country will receive $200,000 “instantaneously”, President Ali reeled that back in on October 16 and said that each adult will receive $100,000. Six weeks later no payment has been made but compulsory registrations are being done for the provision of the grant to pensioners and public servants.
On an interview programme on November 13 and in response to a question from Stabroek News Ali said that the $100,000 cash grant will be paid to most persons here before Christmas with pensioners and public servants poised to get theirs by the end of this month.
“Before the end of the month, the existing datasets [for pensioners and public servants] their cheque will be cut easily because their dataset is already there. This weekend, they will be in Region 9 collecting the datasets from Region 9, working with all the toshaos …the hinterland regions we will try to complete as quickly as possible because the coast we can easily work with,” the President said.
“Yes… you would get your money before Christmas,” he added.
According to Ali, a key prerequisite is data collection and that is in the works. “So you had to get a system to collect the data, to cut the cheque, we already had raw datasets like all public service employees and then you have all pensioners. Tomorrow morning we can cut the cheque for all of them.”
The President said that training has been ongoing for persons who head into the hinterland to collect data from citizens there. And when the teams are done training and go out into the fields, they will be doing so with electronic devices with special data applications which they will bring back to the city to store and set the process for payment.
“The training has been ongoing for persons who go in the regions and collect the data. For example this weekend we will be in Region 9 to get all the information… the ID cards [etcetera]. When all of that is done, it goes into an app electronically. So they have their tablets, they go into the field…in two days [they can] register them and then all the cheques will be cut in the system and then you go back out with the first list [of payments]. So you are building accountability, transparency, involvement. Involvement and at national level, the regional level and you are effectively and effectively build the system out,” Ali explained.
He continued, “In Region 9 the app will be up and running and of course before the end of the month, the easy datasets like public servants and pensioners and all of that will be easily paid off”.
Since its announcement, the $100,000 cash grant has attracted wide public attention and Prime Minister Mark Phillips faced a volley of questions on Wednesday in parliament in relation to a supplementary provision of $30.5b sought for about half of the eligible.
Following the passage of financial papers in the National Assembly on Wednesday which included monies for the one-off cash grant to every Guyanese 18 years and older, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance and the Public Service Dr Ashni Singh sat down with the state media to clear the air.
Clarified
He first clarified why only $30.5 billion was budgeted for, though the government anticipates that the total payout will amount to 60 billion.
“We’re looking at roughly speaking about 600,000 persons,” he stated. “What we have sought in these supplementary financial papers is what we believe is perhaps the best estimate of what we can realistically execute before the end of the year at the current pace.”
According to Dr. Singh, the government estimates it can distribute the grant to 300,000 people by year’s end, based on the current pace of registration and disbursement.
“We’re moving at an extremely aggressive pace,” he said. “We believe we can comfortably execute 300,000 thereabout. So, we came to Parliament requesting approval for that amount.”
However, Dr. Singh emphasized that the government is prepared to adjust the plan if operations allow for faster execution. “If we discover that 300,000 proves to be the number we are able to comfortably execute before the end of the year, we will include the remainder in the budget for 2025 and execute it in early 2025,” he explained.
He added, “If we find that the registration is moving at a pace that is so rapid that we’re able to roll this out even more aggressively and get to more than 300,000 persons, we will come back. If we have to come back on the 30th of December, we will.”
Dr. Singh reassured citizens that the government’s ultimate goal is to ensure every eligible individual receives the grant.
“I emphasize that there is absolutely nothing to prevent us, once we find this is moving quickly, from coming back to Parliament before the end of the year to do the remainder.”
And speaking at his press conference yesterday PPP General Secretary and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo stated “We are working to ensure at least the public servants and pensioners are completed before the end of the year. I already said the entire process will take about five months. The technical unit said to me that they can [register] 300,000 persons before the end of the year. They told me they can cut about 20,000 Cheques per day in the Ministry of Finance. They built a system to do that separately outside of the regular system. They can do about 10,000 people per day; therefore, it will be about 300,000 persons. They will cut the cheques for those 300,000 persons. We cannot appropriate the balance of the money until you have a budget. The budget will hopefully pass by February of next year, and we can seek to appropriate the balance for the remainder. We anticipate it will be another $30 billion because we have about 600,000 adults just a bit over that in the country. In the meantime, the cheques that have been cut will be distributed in December and January. Not everyone will get it before Christmas, but you will get it (it) might come in good after the Christmas.”
