Prime Minister Mark Phillips was peppered with questions about the distribution of the one-off $100,000 cash grant and a timeline and structure for the actual distribution.

The Committee of Supply of the National Assembly this afternoon approved $30.5 Billion in supplementary funding to cater for the cash grant.

When questioned about whether the $30.5 Billion is sufficient to cover all eligible persons 18-years and older, the Prime Minister said if the Government sees a need to return to the Assembly for additional funds, it will do so.

He said the Government’s current focus is to begin the distribution exercise as soon as possible, as the registration process for the grant has already started.

Opposition Member of Parliament, Shurwayne Holder pointed out that the sum of $30.5 Billion only covers 305,000 eligible Guyanese.

He said the Prime Minister and the Government need to be much clearer on their plans since citizens are asking questions.

“Mr. Speaker, in the initial announcement we heard that it was a total of $60B to be disbursed. We have since seen some changes, and now, we see the amount coming to the Parliament as $30.5B, which works out to about $305,000 persons 18-years and above,” MP Holder pointed out. 

The Prime Minister hinted that while everyone will get the money, some might be pushed back into early next year as there is just one month remaining in the year.

“Today is the 27^th November, the Financial Year finishes on the 31^st of December, so, it is just about a month. We are asking for that money, and we are going to pay out that money as fast as possible. Come January 1^st, we go into another budget cycle and the remainder money that is needed will be apportioned and allocated from that budget cycle, that is the easy answer,” Prime Minister Phillips explained. 

Pressed for more answers, he noted that the first in line to receive the grant are public servants since their information is already in Government’s database. 

But the Prime Minister, while being further grilled by MPs Sherod Duncan, Volda Lawrence, Annette Ferguson and Amanza Walton-Desir, dodged questions on the total number of Guyanese to benefit from the $30.5B, whether or not Guyanese have started to receive the grant, which areas outside of the public servants’ category would be targeted and on issues relating to registration exercise.

Jumping to his defense, Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh clarified that registration is required for all Guyanese, including public servants. 

“The reason why registration is required for everybody is because in addition to processing public servants payments simply by virtue of the fact that they are in public employment, we are also registering in the communities and the people who work in public offices also live in these communities, and so in order to ensure, that we minimize and eliminate as far as possibly can duplication it is imperative that everybody be registered,” he explained. 

Registration for the cash grant has begun for public servants and the residents of Region 9.

The Government said it will publish a schedule for various communities when it is ready to register other persons. Once registered, the government would verify the information before disbursing the grant to those who are eligible. 

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