Guyana has long gone past the stage of oil and gas being no more than a pipe dream. Indeed some of the realities of Guyana being what one might call a petro state are becoming increasingly evident, not least those that have to do with a coastal reconstruction exercise that is chugging along gradually, in some instances, in fits and starts. Transformation from a condition of persistent poverty and long unfulfilled expectations to one of continually rising material ambitions would now appear to be within our grasp.
What our oil and gas finds have done is to remove us out of that wing-and-a prayer zone in which we have historically dwelt and into a realm of greater certainty. Confident expectations would now appear to be at least as prevalent as fervent hope. Longer-term benefits to the populace deriving from the country’s oil wealth are, one expects, on the agenda of those who govern today and those who will in the periods ahead. In a situation such as ours, however, immediate-term palliatives (which is what the current handout is) are well-merited in a country where ‘hard times’ have forever been a way of life for a huge chunk of the population.
Contextually, the $100,000 payout, while unlikely to be seen as a great deal more than a tokenistic handout (given the prevailing cost of living), will be seen by some as a step in the right direction. That it could not have been disbursed, however, without the use of procedural tools that have brought a generous measure of irksomeness into the process is regrettable. The recently state-announced handout – which finally arrived at one hundred thousand dollars per Guyanese over the age of eighteen – is a sort of immediate-term feel-good gesture that offers every Guyanese over the age of eighteen a ‘feel’ of our oil money in their pockets. It is a not so immediate palliative, presumably, a portent of things to come.
The earliest announcement of the handout came suddenly, that disclosure ‘offering’ $200,000 per household. Presumably, after that offer had been subjected to sufficient scrutiny, it was adjusted to $100,000 per Guyanese 18 years old and above including Guyanese residing abroad. What subsequently appeared to have become clear, however, was that there was need to put stringent mechanisms in place to ensure the smooth execution of the process, including, the avoidance of perpetration of such scams as reportedly obtain in the ‘administering’ of pension books. This was a sign that the earliest disclosure might have been premature. Here it would seem that, in the first instance, the government may have opted to (politically) ‘play up’ the handout itself leaving aside the logistical considerations associated with the actual distribution of the monies.
Once the payout disclosure was made it stood to reason that there would have been a considerable clamour for the disbursements to be made in short order, and, truth be told the political administration appeared decidedly awkward when, the payout announcement having been made, it embarked on what is perhaps best described as the (currently unfolding) logistical exercise which as far as we have been told is being executed to minimize the danger of fraud. That Guyanese have seemingly gone about the ‘registration’ exercise with a fair measure of diligence points to a keenness to get their hands on the $100,000.00 handout which, in the context of what one might call their immediate domestic needs, will fill a few holes, without, given the prevailing cost of living, having anything even remotely resembling a transformational impact on lives and livelihoods.
Going forward, the real task of government is to use the impetus arising out of the country’s oil bonanza to create income-earning opportunities so that, down the road, the anticipated `honorarium’ becomes a precursor to far more meaningful opportunities for Guyanese to benefit from their oil bonanza.
