Cash transfers – Part 11 – helping Minister Bharrat

Oct 05, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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(Kaieteur News) – I agree with some of what Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, had to say on cash transfers, but only limitedly.  Where there is difference, I don’t criticize.  I edify.

Minister Bharrat is heard clearly in the context of cash transfers of $500k monthly or quarterly.  “Who will go to school after that? Because if I’m a student and I’m a Guyanese, I would say I’m collecting our money. Why should I go to school? Why should I study? Why should I get degree (sic)? Why should I go work? Because I’m collecting this money. So, it’s the culture, is the culture that we create, or the culture behind that.” 

 There is recollection what happened in the U.S. with long-term COVID-19 unemployment money, and how much that disincentivized honest work.  So, I am with the minister, but part of the way only.  My own questions follow.  What about those looking for a start to get off the bottom floor, then leverage relief into more?  What about those who invest cash transfer money wisely, per the mechanism outlined by Vice President Dr. Jagdeo?  Yes, there will be the profligates; but there also would be the frugal, who count every cent.  When citizens endure hard times, are lifted out of that quicksand, they hate returning there.  Once the poverty dog bites, the next time there are big fights against receiving another piercing.  To the honourable minister, I say this: I know what it is to be poor, in need.  I see poor people frequently, and I question how they manage in oil rich Guyana, with very high GDP, while pretend that all’s well.  It isn’t; nothing is.

Sorry, but I must distance from Minister Bharrat and his strange, new road, take a different one.  “Now let’s look at a few countries. Let’s look at the US. Many of these people who have called for cash transfer, most of them live in the US.”  The minister exaggerated slightly.  Guyanese living right here are calling for, expecting, promising a cash transfer, then more of them.  With the minister’s permission, I point to his comrades on the political hustings, and the sweet gushers of words that flowed from their mouths.  If he didn’t know, I help: cash handouts/grants.  More than one cash handout.  Big cash handouts.  Rich cash handouts in the future.  I refer the honourable minister to the campaign tapes.

 Next, Minister Bharrat went on a roll.  What a roll!  Check this out, folks. “The US produces probably the most oil in the world among oil producing countries. I’ve never heard of any cash transfer in the US, Qatar. I’ve never heard of any cash transfer in Qatar, the UAE, which is Dubai…I’ve never heard of any cash transfer given. Look at Ghana, look at Angola, and those African countries that produce oil.”  Ahem!  It pains to separate from any minister, but I must.

Sure, the U.S. has recaptured its role as the world’s biggest oil producer.  But, in the U.S. sir, oil is in private hands.  Oil is not 70% of the economy.  In the U.S., oil companies pay taxes, windfall taxes occasionally, and recently royalties.  But there is no profit sharing.  Even though Guyana’s profit sharing is tricky, visited by continual controversy, it still occurs, even if it’s in the form of one hand giving, one hand taking back.  I remind Brother Vickram that ‘one haan caan clap’.  Lest I forget, the U.S. has a comprehensive social safety net, from food stamps to unemployment insurance to help for troubled children to a reasonably fair disability regime.  Then, there is oil Alaska and how that state rewards residents.  To remain civil, I say no more, urge the minister to revisit his words, rebalance his “failed model’ revelation.

Relative to cash transfers in Qatar and the UAE, c’mon minister.  Those countries are family-owned, family-controlled, and family-operated.  There are thoroughbreds to be bought, expensive real estate to be bought in Mayfair, Manhattan, and Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.  But the emirs still provide generously for their people.  The princes’ jetsetter lifestyle is costly, but money is still found to fund and keep citizens in those welfare states living a grand life.  Ever heard about droves of hungry and struggling Qataris?  They are doing so well that they have Indians, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, and Filipinos doing everything for them.  Especially when they collect handsomely from their highly paid jobs, lucrative contracts.  Africa, ah Africa, there was the dos Santos clan in Angola, Abacha in Nigeria, and they had a common thread running through them: kleptocracy.  Those leaders were so busy raiding the people’s treasury and banking in Geneva, that there was no pausing to think of cash transfers to those with no grip on the economic ladder.  There it was, the good and bad.  Nice chatting, minister.  Best wishes.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• Cash Transfers, GHK Lall, Minister Bharrat, natural resources, oil resources

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