Latest update November 23rd, 2024 1:00 AM
Latest News
Cash grants remain plausible option to benefit citizens
Kaieteur News – The idea of direct revenue to citizens from oil profits is not farfetched as several stakeholders believe the notion is plausible. Shadow Minister of Natural Resources and Oil and Gas, David Patterson has been the latest voice in support giving hard cash to citizens.
Shadow Oil and Gas Minister, David Patterson
He was at the time expressing Guyana’s loss from not auditing oil industry expenses when he insisted that the sum could have gone directly into citizens’ pockets.
Patterson, during an interview on the Politics 101 show urged that Guyana’s ability to audit will see the country paying less than what is presented for developing the oil sector. He said that proper verifications and checks to oil expenses would highlight whether Guyana is overpaying. “So what happens, is the cost that they declare, this US$9B, (for Liza 1 and 2) conservative estimates are that you can save as much as a billion US dollars or $900M, 10 percent knocked off from the price they are reporting. “With US$900M you can pay public servants a $200,000 minimum wage,” Patterson suggested.
He said it would be easy for the government to increase workers’ pay from $70,000 with the money saved. He continued by noting that there have been calls for cash transfers, but the government has insisted that they can’t afford the payouts. He posited, however, that if valid and true audits are conducted, “the money garnered from the audits, the savings, that alone can fund, or at least partially fund some sort of limited cash grant transfer to the poor and vulnerable and the youths.”
Local economist, Professor Clive Thomas is also advocating for the handing out of cash grants to citizens. In fact, he believes that any sum handed over to citizens should be enough to immediately take them above the poverty line as a means of directly attacking the issue of poverty. In his Buxton proposal, Prof. Thomas proposes hard cash be given to citizens from oil revenues as a “structured and direct assault” on poverty. He said the objective of the proposal is to ensure that everybody gets a basic universal income that takes them above the poverty line as defined and measured in Guyana.
This measure, Thomas had proposed, would see direct benefits to citizens, especially when large investments are not being made to increase human capacity.
There have been claims, however, that handing hard cash over to citizens would increase inflation and that it would see citizens wasting the money. To both of these issues, Thomas offered explanations. He said that other countries that give cash to its citizens have seen them spending it on what he called investment goods. They improve their quality of life by improving their homes, health and welfare of their families. Thomas said that for inflation to become an issue, citizens would have to see constant increases in their salary for prices of goods to increase.
In the oil producing nations of Alaska and Kuwait, citizens are paid direct sums. The Alaska Permanent Fund (APF) is a constitutionally established permanent fund managed by a state-owned corporation, the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (APFC). As of 2019, the fund was worth approximately $64 billion that has been funded by oil revenues and has paid out an average of approximately $1,600 annually per resident.
In 2011, every citizen in Kuwait received $3,500 in cash and free food for 13 months to help citizens improve their living conditions. The oil-rich nation has provided other measures to support citizens’ welfare.
Prof. Thomas has pointed out that Guyana has less than five decades to make the best of its oil resources since the world is moving away from fossil fuel. He insists therefore that the government must find a way to remove its people from poverty by the time that happens.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Let us not be silent witnesses!
…Peeping Tom kaieteur News- Ray Daggers walked from Corriverton to Charity. It was a journey so epic it might have... more
Rising Gun Crimes in the Caribbean: Urgent Action required by all
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – There is an alarming surge in gun-related violence, particularly among younger... more
Weekend Cartoon
