Former Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan said it would be better to give each Guyanese living in Guyana a $100,000 cash grant, as he poked holes in President Irfaan Ali’s announcement that his administration will be giving every Guyanese household a one-off cash grant of $200,000. 

Jordan’s proposal targets adult Guyanese living in the country, and according to him, it would resolve a number of challenges confronting the Government, including the big question of what constitutes a household.    

“To avoid this problem that is inherent in this issue about households, they should step back and say listen, we are going to be giving…$100,000 to Guyanese residents, adult Guyanese residents. That is easier because first of all, here is the advantages of doing that, one, you don’t have the problem anymore of defining household, because a lot of people think a house is a household but that is not true. A house is not a household,” Jordan said. 

The former Finance Minister, who served under the David Granger Administration, was at the time was speaking on Nation Watch – a televised opposition programme which aired on Sunday. 

Adult Guyanese, he said, could be easily identified using the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Register of Registrant Database and supplemented with data from the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the National Insurance Scheme (NIS). 

 President Ali, in making the announcement last Thursday, said Guyanese households would benefit from the one-off cash grant of $200,000, and according to the country’s Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, based on the last census, Guyana has a total of 264,000 households. 

But Jordan was keen on pointing out that the census captures all households, including households with foreign nationals, and as such, the targeted households would be far less than 264,000.

He said in addition to that, the initiative, in its current format, stands the risk of failing to bring relief and financial assistance to those who need it the most.   

“This $200,000, let’s be very, very clear about it based on what he has said, is a universal $200,000. So, the person who is announcing it will get $200,000 because he has a household; Jagdeo will get $200,000, all his ministers will get $200,000, all of the fat cats will get $200,000. You know who will not generally get the $200,000? The poorest of the poor. The person sleeping under GPO, the person sleeping on the corner of Guyana Stores, the person sleeping in the parks, the benches in the parks, the squatter settlements, the people who live on the dam, the people who live on the seawall, they not going to get $200,000,” the former Finance Minister said. 

The one-off cash grant is intended to cushion the high cost of living, but Jordan said the approach is temporary, and once the finances are disbursed, Guyanese can find themselves in the same position they were in prior to the disbursement.   

“I don’t see these sets of measures, as popular as they are, being the result of any studied approach to the cost-of-living problems that you have in Guyana. A studied approach, would have first of all accepted that there is a huge problem with cost-of-living in Guyana, there is an even bigger problem of poverty in Guyana. International studies, international organizations put that anywhere between 35% and 40 something percent – poverty,” he said. 

Jordan said had Government adopted the Clive Thomas Buxton Proposal, Guyanese would have been in line to benefit from an annual transfer of resources as long as oil is being pumped. 

Weighing in on tax measures that were also announced by the President, Jordan said the poor are not likely to benefit, with many of them working informal settings.

He said it is the middle class and the rich, who are likely to take in the benefits, adding that the initiatives by the government have fallen short in providing support to those who truly need it.

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