Additional time for $100,000 cash grant distribution necessary for transparency – President

As he affirmed that public servants and pensioners will start to receive their $100,000 cash grant before the end of 2024, President Dr. Irfaan Ali explained the additional time spent on setting up the distribution system was necessary to ensure overall transparency.

The President spoke about the $100,000 cash grant for every adult citizen during a recent end-of-year engagement with five women journalists.

Dr. Ali acknowledged that in a previous interview, he noted that Guyana’s public servants and pensioners would get this grant before the end of November. He, however, said the government undertook the herculean task of establishing a robust system that would ensure there is transparency and accountability in the distribution process so that there are no errors such as any double payment to an individual.

“I would say that building out the process, having the app in place, having the entire flowchart of what has to be done, would’ve taken an additional time.

“But it is additional time that is worth it because it’s additional time that allows for the verification, the means of verification, and the built-in transparency that we want in the system,” Dr. Ali contended.

Still, he assured citizens that public servants and pensioners would start getting their cheques before the end of this year. Their data, he said, is already available.

“The public servants and pensioners will definitely get their cheques… the registration process is ongoing for Region Four at the moment and we are hoping that once enough data is in the system, that we will start paying out the cheques in Region Four,” Dr. Ali said.

Region Four is Guyana’s most populated administrative region. A day before the President’s interview, Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo said that about 221,000 citizens registered for the $100,000 cash grant, and about 150,000 of those individuals have already been verified. And he too noted that the distribution would commence soon.

However, the President also pointed out that there are other factors to consider such as the distribution of other cash grants like the recently- announced grant for persons with disabilities, and the fertiliser support for farmers.