Oil money being used for cash grants, pension increase and part-time workers – VP Jagdeo

Aug 30, 2023 News

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Kaieteur News – After ballyhooing that money from the oil and gas sector cannot be used as cash handouts and that the oil revues will be focused on infrastructural development – Vice President (VP), Bharrat Jagdeo told Indigenous leaders that the oil money is benefitting them and their communities through the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant and other initiatives by the government.

On Tuesday, the Vice President made a presentation on the Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030 (LCDS 2030) as part of the National Toshaos Council (NTC) Conference 2023, which is being held at the Arthur Chung Conference Center (ACCC), Liliendaal, Georgetown.

During the question and answer segment, a resident of Jawalla Village, Region Seven, Harold Brown, raised a concern by one of his villagers who had asked how indigenous people are benefitting from the oil money.

The Toshao said, “Just before I came to NTC meeting, just recently I had a (meeting) with my people about the same LCDS and the one of the young guys ask if is LCDS alone we benefiting from? What about the oil money, Exxon money…and that same question I am asking you… how are we benefitting from the Exxon money?”

The Vice President acknowledged the Toshaos’ inquiry as a good question, adding that less than one-third of this year’s budget is financed from oil resources.

“People say oh Guyanese are not benefitting more…so let me do a couple of categories,” the Vice President said.

Jagdeo said too that the previous administration had revoked the children’s cash grant. To this end, he highlighted that the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) reintroduced the cash grant and was able to increase it to $40,000 per child.

“By 2025, as we promised it will get to $50,000 so guess how much is spent on our children $8.4B so let’s put down $8.4B,” he further stated.

The next benefit Jagdeo listed was the increase for the pensioners. He said, “The pensioners, their pension increase from, $20,000 to $33,000, and it will get to $40,000 by 2025 as we promised in our manifesto.”

According to the Vice President, about 74,000 pensioners, including Indigenous people, benefitted from the $13,000 increase – which resulted in a $14.5 Billion investment.

Jagdeo said in addition to the monies spent on the cash grant and the pension increase, the government also increased wages for public servants like teachers, policemen, soldiers and others – this, he said, was a $37 Million investment since the PPP returned to office in 2020.

Another benefit Jagdeo told the indigenous leaders, is the part-time jobs that are a $10 Billion investment. He explained that about 15,000 people were hired for part-time jobs.

“So when you look at it, that is how the resources is going back to our people, our children, our pensioners, our part-time workers…you (hinterland and riverine areas) have about 4,500 working, of which maybe 2,000 are part-time workers, with (benefits) going back to these areas,” the Vice President said.

According to Jagdeo, in those four areas (children’s grant, pension increase, part-time jobs, and public servants increase) there was a major investment from oil revenues. He highlighted the health and education sector was supported by the oil revenues, adding that the health sector’s budget grew by over $30 Billion.

Moreover, the Vice President stated that oil revenues make up about $200 Billion of the $781.9 Billion 2023 budget – of that sum he stated that about $70 Billion was invested into the four areas he mentioned earlier.

“Leaving out the sum that we are spending on the hinterlands, roads, water, electricity all of these improvements…I can go down a long list and show you that when you add education and health care and water it’s nearly $170Billion of the $200 Billion that came in from oil,” Jagdeo said.

He added that the 30,000 solar panels are also a benefit from the oil revenues, as well as monies spent on ICT hubs and internet.

“So you can’t say I’m not benefitting…We are not like APNU (A Partnership For National Unity) so every one of our communities will benefit from oil money. But it comes in the form of help to our children, our elderly, the form of help of employment creation, infrastructure, health care and stuff like that,” the Vice President said.

In the past, Jagdeo had stated that the government will focus the oil wealth on building the country’s infrastructure. In fact, last year during an interview, the Vice President promised new highways and roads, investments in energy.

“We have spoken about that framework of ensuring infrastructure for future growth…Many people believe we should spend every cent on consuming but you can’t do that. We are balancing spending on oneself now and future welfare,” Jagdeo had said.

Notably, there has been advocacy in Guyana for the government to use millions in the forms of cash grants from the oil revenues for citizens.  However, the Vice President had said that the mentality of handing out cash grants could lead to Guyana returning to the days when it was a poor country.

Just recently, Kaieteur News reported  that the Government of Guyana’s refusal to ring-fence the oil projects, specifically those currently in operation at the Stabroek Block is preventing at least $1 million from flowing to each household across the country. This is according to the Publisher of Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall.

Lall, a businessman and stern advocate for a fair oil deal, in a recent public commentary argued that Guyanese families can become millionaires if government simply ring-fences the oil projects. A ring-fencing provision would prevent oil companies from using revenue generated from a production field to offset costs in another project. In the absence of such a provision, ExxonMobil have been using the proceeds from the Liza One and Liza Two projects, currently producing about 400,000 barrels of oil per day, to pay for costs related to other Stabroek Block projects.

Though this provision is not catered for in the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), government can include this clause in the Environmental Permits, it grants to Exxon for each new project. So far, Guyana has already approved five projects for the oil giant without this provision.

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• Bharrat Jagdeo, Conference, Harold Brown, National Toshaos’ Council (NTC), Region Seven, Vice President (VP)

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