$100K per adult is a much “fairer system” – VP Jagdeo

…says will spare Govt “nightmare” of having to identify
households, heads of households

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo believes that the Government’s decision to reverse the $200,000 cash grant per household initiative to a $100,000 per adult Guyanese initiative is not only much fairer but avoids a host of complications that come with identifying a household and its head.
Following his announcement of the $200,000 cash payout per household last week, President Dr Irfaan Ali on Wednesday announced that this initiative has since been revised to $100,000 per citizen 18 years and older.
During his weekly press conference on Thursday, Jagdeo explained that the initial cash grant proposal had sparked issues in households among family members. This, he added, was further compounded by attempts by some persons to unscrupulously cash in on the payout.
Initially, the Government had said that it was going to use the database from utility companies such as the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc and Guyana Water Inc (GWI) to determine primary households, which would receive the cash grant first and then secondary households such as tenants would get their money afterwards.
“From [last] Thursday when the announcement was made to Friday morning, we were bombarded with calls. So, already, people from families were calling us to say if you give one person in the family, [they] will never benefit from anything and these are within families… By Friday afternoon, everyone wanted to sign up a fake tenancy agreement… Then we saw people started going to GPL, they want new meters and all kinds of things…
“Before Friday, we realised that you couldn’t count on the goodwill of people anymore… We wanted every family to benefit – real families – but we would’ve ended up with controversy and a never-ending issue to prove how many households you had… It would have ended up in a lot of corruption and controversies,” the Vice President noted.
Against this backdrop, the Finance Ministry was instructed last Friday to relook at the cash grant initiative and later arrived at the $100,000 per adult proposal.
President Ali explained during his announcement on Wednesday that this new plan not only expanded the benefits but also removed the complexity of implementing cash grants.
“It is the understanding of the complexity there is even within and among families and understanding the importance of feedback that we have received, including internal family conflict about access and distribution of the grant… In the interest of fairness and openness and in the interest of ensuring that the widest possible benefit is given to the Guyanese population, we believe that this is the best course of action,” the Head of State had noted.
While the initial plan had targeted approximately 300,000 households across the country which would have received $200,000 each, amounting to some $60 billion, this figure is expected to substantially increase with the new payout structure.
According to VP Jagdeo, the Government wanted this cash grant distribution to be fair and done in a transparent manner.
“We want to have an easy way of verifying people… It may mean a bit more money, but it will be an infinitely fairer system and it avoids, us – the Government – being put in an unenviable position where we would’ve had to prove who was the head of the household. And just imagine, that would’ve been never-ending and leave a lot of people dissatisfied. If every adult gets it now, we know who our adults are. We can prove who are adults and we can prove that they are Guyanese, and those are the two criteria. Those are simple things to prove, because we have documents to prove that and then we can pay people. So, then you can avoid duplication and all of those things,” he posited.
In the same breath, however, Jagdeo acknowledged that some groupings such as single mothers/parents would be adversely affected by this change. But he contended it was never intended as just support for single parents but as assistance to all households.
Nevertheless, the Vice President noted that the $100,000 per adult cash grant will be issued by cheques and special consideration is being given to hinterland beneficiaries who do not have easy access to banks.
Meanwhile, Jagdeo on Thursday also dismissed attempts by the  Finance Minister under the previous A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) regime, Winston Jordan, who sought to take credit for the cash grant initiative.
Playing a recording of Jordan while in office clearly stating, “If it’s a case where you saying everybody in the population must get a transfer of cash and so on, I can tell you that will never fly”, the Vice President called out the former Finance Minister, for now, backtracking on his position to claim the “idea”.
According to Jagdeo, the People’s Progressive Party had promised a cash payout to Guyanese citizens in its 2020 manifesto – something which the APNU/AFC coalition was always against.
“Everything is their idea. So, they said ‘Oh now, cash grants was their idea’. Since when is that a unique thing? It’s in our manifesto from 2020, you see it there to Guyanese… We started off with particular groups – our children, giving them more money first. We started off with the elderly and those [who are] disabled, and now, we’re having cash transfers to a larger group of Guyanese…
“No doubt someone from Finance told [Jordan] we’re reconsidering it… So, Sunday he said ‘I suggest you go to a $100,000 now’ as though it’s an original idea. The same man who said it will never fly under APNU… He claims credit for it. APNU is saying it was our great idea… I don’t give a damn about APNU and their ideas,” Jagdeo declared. (G8)