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Cash grant – an invitation to corruption

Oct 18, 2024 Editorial

Editorial…

Kaieteur News – The cash coming from the PPPC Government is producing much excitement for Guyanese.  Cash coming left, right, and center, and with a few loud blasts.  The biggest one of all is President Ali’s $200,000 one-off cash distribution for each Guyanese household. In a flash, Guyanese went from famine to feast, for $200,000 in hand is a bag of money that was not there before.  Though prices are sure to take on a life of their own, as is customary in such circumstances, $200,000 have some limited staying power, and the power to make a difference in the lives of struggling Guyanese.  Without admitting ignorance or incompetence, a new announcement modifies and expands the original $200,000 to cover more Guyanese, but at the smaller $100,000 level.

The one-off cash grant should give Guyanese who need relief an ease, if it reaches them.  They could clear debts incurred to manage with cost-of-living, with some spare cash left to enjoy a decent holiday season.  The concern is where does this leave the Guyanese man-in-the-street, the teachers, public servants, and minimum wage workers, when the $100,000 cash grant is consumed.  The prices of essential items are rising with little reprieve in sight, so it could be back to square one, with the poor in this country feeling the squeeze, hit hard.  The cash handout is welcomed, has its uses, but what would help Guyanese more is to be presented with a plan (and a program) that is more than a bold headline.  A plan that is enduring because it represents what is fair to citizens in a rich oil producing country, with the national wealth spread out sensibly and cleanly.  Though it is a cloud on President Ali’s parade, this latest cash handout, for its helpful positives, has corruption written on every envelope.  When the amount stated is considered, many in the PPPC Government circle will have frequent opportunities for self-enrichment.  After several cash handouts this lesson should have been learned by now, with a different relief system put in place.  The “per household” cash prize was sure to generate both disagreements, which led to the revised $100,000 grant.

To put more cash in Guyanese workers’ hands, there’s an increase in the income tax threshold, with a child credit announced.  This offers some ease, but it is a pittance.  This again emphasizes the government’s approach that is firmly settled in a drips-and-drabs mode, when a strong and steady hand to all Guyanese is what is needed.  Also, those workers who came painfully close, but not close enough, to collecting an NIS pension stand as prospective beneficiaries of a $10B one-off injection into that institution.  Some 3,800 workers should now be in line to receive a monthly NIS pension.  Along with those provisions, there is the universal $10,000 health voucher benefit, and free university tuition set to begin in 2025.  In fairness, it could be said that Guyanese have been offered some relief from their ongoing battles with managing to live with some dignity in the richest country in the world per capita.  Certainly, they make a dent, but more is needed, for this is a country where billions upon billions are being spent (and squandered) on pet projects about which so little is known, so little confidence is vested.

Because the PPPC Government is so ecstatic by the opportunities for corruption under the umbrellas of infrastructure and protected agencies, that is where the bulk of budget funds have gone.  It explains why one eye-catching public works project after another makes the headlines, for this is where the government’s interest is foremost.  Supplementary allocations for failing institutions have also fueled more corruption. To a significant extent, this has been to the detriment of citizens, with those living on starvation wages feeling the full force of their needs and not being able to do much about their predicament.  Meanwhile, a dependency syndrome is fostered, with citizens having no choice but to wait on hands and knees for the president to make a grand entry and create a splash.  This is where President Ali is in his element.  He is happy to be a leader more of sound that quickly fades than one of substance that lasts

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