I want to ask people to have some patience again. We would not have to do this again in the future, when I am sure in the future there will be additional cash grants
-pleads for patience
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday stated that while all adults will be receiving the $100,000 cash grant the government is targeting five regions for registration and distribution for the month of December.
“The target regions at this point in time are regions 1,7,8,9 and 4… We will confine our activities to these five regions for the next month and then move on to the other regions. I just want to say to people from the other regions you will be registered but it will be after we’ve completed the registration exercise in these regions. You will receive the cash grant it is just a matter of time. It is a complex task involving the enumeration of several hundreds of thousands of Guyanese to receive the grant. We expect that this exercise will be completed in the five regions in four weeks and the cheques for these five regions would all be cut if not distributed immediately but we are making a big effort to have them in people’s hand. I want to ask people to have some patience again. We would not have to do this again in the future, when I am sure in the future there will be additional cash grants. The registration exercise will allow us to have a proper data base so whenever it happens again in the future we have a proper data base. Please get registered and exercise patience”, he urged.
Additionally, acknowledging that there have been challenges during the past few days since registration began for the specific regions, he said that those challenges are being smoothed out.
“There have been some challenges given the magnitude. The Ministry of Finance set up a mechanism for the feedback of the process so they can improve. Like if the enumerators go a little late and people gather up, people have to go to work and they’re waiting, they are trying to smooth this out as soon as possible. They have substantially completed the registration in Region 9 and started distributing cheques there. They have substantially completed the exercise in regions 1 and region 8. The schedule for Region 7 will be announced shortly. The schedule for Region 4 East Coast, East Bank and Georgetown are all out”.
Speaking to the issue of persons who might be working in the interior or shut ins he added that “Even if we miss people now we will have to find ways to reach them. Apart from the five regions we are also registering public servants and pensioners. I guess once the bulk of the people have been registered then we will probably have to go and visit people so we will have to be notified where they are and go and register them. But no one will be denied the hundred thousand… If you miss them in the initial round you probably may catch them in the next round”.
Following the announcement of the cash distribution the government had started the registration first for public servants and pensioners and is now open for registration for the general public with various registration sites in different communities.
Fifty percent of adults are expected to receive the handout before the end of this year and the remainder early next year.
