Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo this afternoon expressed his full support of the Government’s five-year agenda, as outlined by President Irfaan Ali in an address to the nation last evening.
Addressing the issue of the $100,000 cash grant for every Guyanese 18-years and older, which will be catered for in next year’s budget, the Vice President said the cash grant initiative will continue, but it will be done in a structured way.
While many expected the payout of the cash grant in time for the Christmas holidays, Vice President Jagdeo said Parliamentary approval would have been needed for the payout.
The Parliament has not met since its first sitting in early November. The Vice President said a country cannot be run only on cash grants.
“But we don’t run a county only on cash grants, we are thinking about long term, we want people to have good paying jobs, we want to them to have decent homes, we want them to live in safe communities, we want them to have good recreational facilities, so that is more sustainable, so that they don’t have to wait on government cash grant to plan their lives around a cash grant, they are going to plan it around the future of their children and their own prosperity that supplements the family income,” Mr. Jagdeo told a news conference this afternoon.
The Vice President said the Government will ensure that it provides more opportunities for vulnerable persons.
He reminded that $63 Billion was paid to citizens last year through the first $100,000 cash grant programme.
“Do you know that when I started my second term as President of Guyana in 2006, the total revenue from all the taxes collected was less than $63b, that’s all the money we had to finance healthcare, education, housing, water, infrastructure, to pay our deaths everything, was less than thre $63B that you are going to get in cash grant next year. So we are giving our people more in one year in cash grant than the total revenue that I had run the country. Suriname just canceled their grant that their promised. So $63B will be going into the hands of our people, next year leaving out the money for our children and all that,” Mr. Jagdeo stated.”
Mr. Jagdeo acknowledged that not everyone is being touched by Government programmes and interventions.
“We are not forgetting those who need direct support to also be prosperous who need a helping hand. We want them though direct intervention to be able to become prosperous in our country, wherever they live and we are going to address that,” the Vice President promised.
The Vice President said the Government’s immediate and long term plan is to bring prosperity to every Guyanese through targeted initiatives.
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