Simplify cash grant distribution processes

Feb 22, 2025 News

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 – Jagdeo tells Finance Ministry as confusion reigns

Kaieteur News- The distribution of the government’s $100,000 cash grant cheques has sparked confusion and chaos at several distribution points, prompting Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo to urge the Ministry of Finance to rectify and simplify the process.

Speaking at his weekly press conference on Thursday at the Freedom House, Georgetown, VP Jagdeo addressed the difficulties encountered during the second phase of cash grant distribution.

He said that many persons arriving at their designated distribution points to collect their cheques are being turned away because their cheques had not yet been printed. Persons are now frustrated and confused because of being kept in long lines for hours only to be informed that their cheques were unavailable.

Jagdeo said, “The Ministry of Finance have instruction to simplify this, we are getting some confusion at different places because people registered, many of them registered so they have to verify and then print the cheques so the numbers registered may not be the same number of cheques printed because they go through a verification before that.”

The Vice President said that while some cheques may not have been printed in specific communities, the distribution process would proceed for those persons whose cheques were verified and printed. This was intended to accelerate the distribution process.

However, this approach caused confusion for the remaining persons whose cheques were not yet ready.

“With the view to accelerate distribution, for example, [at] Unity and say 100 persons registered, they have been able to verify 75 [persons] so they print 75 cheques but we want to distribute now, we don’t want to wait on the 25 others to be printed and verified so you can accelerate. When they start distributing, the word gets around they are distributing the cheques so the 25 others may show up too, but their cheques are not there because they have not been verified so they are getting that problem,” Jagdeo said.

However, he admitted that this issue is not an easy solution stating, “So this is something we have to be better with. I don’t know how, because you can’t get into each home to call people to say like if it’s a big community 2000 to 3000 people to call everyone and say your cheque is not ready as yet for the 10% or 20% that may not be ready, please don’t come. So, people end up showing up there and they’re waiting, then they find out, oh my cheque is not printed. They will get it, but it just creates sometimes confusion. That is a problem that we are encountering.”

Additionally, Jagdeo noted complaints from people who had registered with a passport but were turned away for not providing their Identification card instead of the passport, during the distribution process. He emphasized the need for better staff training and communication to address these issues.

“Sometimes when you have a large number of people doing this, people bringing their own views on what should happen.  I said to the staff you have to clarify all of these things. You have to make sure you talk to people over and over, train people but sometimes they do the same thing on the ground. And some people go out in these long lines, we put them in place there, then they leave for lunch and don’t come back until 2 to 3 hours later and people are just waiting there. So, we are encountering all of these issues,” Jagdeo told reporters.

As such, the Vice President urged Minister of Finance Ashni Singh to focus on resolving these issues saying, “The ministry has to improve on this Ashni Singh has to take this personally and deal with this, the budget is over and the staff can focus full time on this that they have to pay more attention into this. We want to get it out as quickly as possible and with the least confusion.”

Furthermore, Jagdeo announced that Guyanese who have registered for the cash grant and are currently overseas during the distribution process will be required to collect their cheques in person, with no authorization for third-party collection.

He said, “Now if your cheque is classified and we did not want to do this authorization because we say only people who come home and registered then they have to collect their cheques in person. If you can’t come in to collect your cheque, eventually you will get your cheque once you are living in Guyana. If you go abroad that’s a different matter. When you come home, your cheques will be there but we may not want to go for authorization,” Jagdeo said.

Meanwhile, Jagdeo revealed that so far, 545,000 cheques have been printed with over 200,000 of those cheques already distributed, including to public servants.  The distribution of the one-off cash grant for adults 18 years and older resumed one week after the 2025 budget was passed, with cheque distribution beginning on February 14, 2025.

The Ministry of Finance as well as Minister Singh have published distribution dates and locations across social media for all regions.

(Simplify cash grant distribution processes)

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• cash grant cheques, chaos, confusion, distribution process, VP Jagdeo

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