The cash grant is being paid out. Indeed, this is a surprise especially since so many things were supposed to be in place. Admittedly, the payout is being made to every Guyanese over age 18. The requirement to collect the money is a valid form of identification.
Most people have the national identification card. It bears the photograph of the individual and is common fare these days. Just about everywhere one goes to conduct a transaction there is a demand for the identification card.
There are people who never secured a national identification card because they never took the time to register for elections. The payment of the cash grant and the demand for a national identification card is a master stroke. It has forced people to get registered.
There are reports that some people have come by the identification card through questionable means. Some people have multiple identification cards as turned out to be the case during recent elections.
The Guyana Elections Commission should have no problem in regularizing this situation. However, it seems as though other measures have been put in place to get the identification cards into the hands of non-Guyanese.
This should be a difficult proposition. Things like a birth certificate or a certificate of naturalization or some such document is needed. But the Venezuelan migrants seem to have provided a problem. Some are said to have Guyanese ancestry, their parents having been born in Guyana.
Initially, such persons needed to provide proof of their Guyanese descent. The situation seems to have changed. All that is necessary is the approval of a toshao who could claim to have known one parent or the other.
Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission, Justice Claudette Singh, in a press release, stated that scrutineers from the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) are permanently present at all GECOM’s Registration Offices countrywide. They are actively involved in the registration process, including the signing off on the accuracy of applications for registration transactions. That should be the end of the problem unless there is secretive registration.
Whatever the case, the identification card is playing a crucial role in the distribution of the cash grant. Something other than the identification card is being requested. Reports are that the photograph of the recipient must be supplied.
The first news I got of the photograph suggested that someone would take the photograph of the recipient at the time of receiving the cash grant. I was surprised and suspicious at the same time. If one has the identification card with the photograph, why request a photo session?
Someone posted in a chat that the photograph is to allow the government to create a database. There is enough information for a database. There are also many databases in the country.
There is the voters’ list as inefficient as it is, the salary records of the public service and public sector employees, the database of the National Insurance Scheme and of course, the record of the Guyana Revenue Authority. The GRA had successfully been able to get just about every Guyanese to secure a Tax Identification Number (TIN).
And there was the national census although that was more focused on the population so the Brazilians, the Venezuelans and all others who happened to be resident in Guyana at the time would be included.
The payout at this time was stated by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo. About a fortnight ago he had stated that the first set of people to receive the cash grant would be the public servants and the pensioners.
Guyana has three tiers of pensioners. Retired public servants become pensioners at 55. The National Insurance Scheme recognizes a pensioner as someone who is 60 years old. The third tier is prescribed by the government. Old age pension is paid to a person who has attained the age of 65. When Jagdeo spoke of pensioners one must determine which category he is referring to.
And so we come to those overseas-based Guyanese who are clamouring for the cash grant. They insist that they are Guyanese and are therefore entitled. They may have a point because the initial announcement stated that the cash grant would be paid to every Guyanese.
There could be an influx of Guyanese in the coming weeks, many coming home for Christmas. A few have their identification cards and wouldn’t mind posing for a photograph having collected almost US$500 each. Their stay in Guyana would be enhanced. Further, they would be added to any new database being created. They could find themselves being counted among the electorate.
The total payout could be enormous. The serious nature of this situation lies in the fact that this money was not voted for in the 2024 budget. One can only assume that the payout being made at this time is from money that may have spilled over from some projects.
In the scheme of things this would be unauthorized spending. There should have been a move to the National Assembly for an appropriation. There has been none. Then again, since not everyone will be receiving the cash grant at this time Jagdeo and Ashni Singh must have crunched some numbers and must have recognized that there is some disposable income on hand.
Transferring money from one programme to another is probably normal in the scheme of things. The argument would be that the money is coming from the current expenditure budget from under some head.
Is the payout a vote-getting measure? Who cares? The other day, in an article on the India-Australia cricket rivalry, an Australian spoke of team members throwing money into the streets from the hotel window. There was joy in watching the Indian people below scrambling to collect and the Australians pouring water on them.
Hope the administration would take no joy in watching people scramble to collect the cash grant while planning something sinister.
