‘Legitimate households’, tenants eligible to receive one-off cash grant – Dr Jagdeo

Every Guyanese household is set to receive a significant boost with a one-off cash grant of $200,000, and according to General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, this includes persons that rent and what are termed ‘legitimate households’.

Dr Jagdeo was responding to questions during a press conference at Freedom House on Thursday.

Explaining what would constitute a ‘household’ within the distribution process, the GS explained that during the last national census, approximately 264,000 households were officially recorded.

However, Dr Jagdeo added that the census may not have captured everyone.

“You do have, in a household, someone may say ‘I cook my own pot’. So, this is where it gets tricky,” he admitted. 

This process presented some challenges in the past, he underscored, especially with the distribution of the COVID-19 cash grant in 2020.

This time around, he explained that the government will be utilising databases recorded by public utilities such as the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) and the Guyana Power and Light (GPL).

“We have about maybe 220,000 people who pay electricity rates…on GPL’s database. So, that excludes region one, part of seven, eight, nine and some other riverain areas on the coast. So, we would have to use the data from GPL and GWI and then go through a process,” he said.

Tenants

He clarified that tenants can qualify for separate cash grants, even if they don’t pay their own utility bills. This means that tenants who aren’t listed as the bill payers can still receive their own grants.

“We are working it to try and see as far as possible how we can make it fair without people ripping off the system too,” the GS underlined.

He added that the process would be simpler in hinterland and remote communities, where a process of verification by the toshaos or community leaders would be implemented.

“Each of the villages have a list of individuals, and they would sign off on it. So then, we would get the names and put the cheque in the names of those people. The aim is to make sure that it is a legitimate household,” Dr Jagdeo added.

He noted that the process will be conducted similar to the distribution of the COVID-19 grant, where primary households were identified in the first phase, and instances, where more families were occupying the same premises, were tackled in the second phase.

Dr Jagdeo also assured that the process will be heavily scrutinised by the Office of the Auditor General, to ensure full transparency and accountability. 

Moreover, the GS also made it clear that non-nationals are not eligible to receive the cash grant. The intervention will inject $60 billion of disposable income into the economy.