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Where is the $60B for one-off cash grants to households coming from? – Patterson questions
Kaieteur News – Twenty-four hours after President Irfaan Ali announced a one-off cash grant of $200,000 for every household in Guyana, Chairman of the Alliance For Change (AFC), David Patterson, raised questions about the funding’s approval during a press conference on Friday.
Chairman for the Chairman of the Alliance For Change David Patterson
He expressed concerns regarding whether the National Assembly had sanctioned the extra budgetary expenditure.
The 2024 National Budget stands at $1.146 trillion. As such Patterson questioned how the one-off cash grant distribution would be managed if it was not allocated in the yearly budget.
“If you recall, the Office of the Prime Minister has a sum of $5 billion allocated for cost-of-living measures. This additional $66 billion would obviously need to come to Parliament,” he stated.
He emphasized that this expenditure does not qualify as an emergency or contingency fund, suggesting that a parliamentary sitting would be necessary for approval.
President Irfaan Ali announced the cash grant during the 12th Parliament Special Sitting on Thursday, stating that the initiative aims to inject $60 billion into the economy and will begin immediately with a focus on fair and transparent distribution.
However, Patterson expressed scepticism about the Bank of Guyana’s capacity to handle such a large distribution. “Currently, from the Bank of Guyana’s half-year report, there are $200 billion in notes in circulation. This $66 billion is a significant amount—does the Bank of Guyana even have that additional liquidity?” He added, “I am wary that they might repeat the previous cash grant distribution, where individuals walked around with $66 billion in cash in envelopes. You can just imagine the nightmare.”
He also criticized the government for not providing a clear distribution process, stating, “They have not even explained how they are going to carry it out. Yes, they need parliamentary approval, so this will come into a supplementary budget, and we are concerned about the method of distribution.”
In response to government comments on the grant’s distribution, AFC leader Nigel Hughes noted, “We observed that the Vice President mentioned entities like GPL and GWI, which serve a large number of people. However, no framework has been laid out for this distribution, which will face significant difficulties, especially concerning squatters, night shelters, miners in the interior and single individuals living with others.”
Meanwhile, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) issued a statement also highlighting that the 2024 budget does not include provisions for the cash distributions.
The PNCR also emphasized that the $200,000 distribution will not effectively address the high cost of living. The party advocated for a more comprehensive approach.
“As the cost of living continues to spiral upward and Guyanese families struggle to make ends meet, we call on the government to ensure our people benefit more from the windfall oil revenues, which now amount to over US$300 million,” the PNCR stated. They suggested that this revenue could be fairly and justly distributed, translating to approximately G$300,000 per household. The long-suffering Guyanese people deserve much more than what was offered by the Government yesterday. However, they must see the cash transfers as their entitlement and not as money that belongs to the PPP. These transfers and much more could have been allocated to the people of Guyana years ago,” the party said in its statement.
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