Veteran journalist Adam Harris has criticised the government’s approach to cash grants, arguing that the policy has been driven more by political expediency than by sustainable economic planning.
In today’s opinion piece, Harris said the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration was never genuinely committed to providing long-term financial relief to Guyanese, noting that promises of cash grants repeatedly surfaced ahead of elections. He recalled that in 2024 the government initially announced a cash grant for households, but abandoned the plan after experts raised concerns that there was no clear definition of a household, particularly in the absence of updated census data. The policy was later changed to provide grants to all Guyanese over the age of 18.
Harris noted that the grant did not materialise until mid-2025, just weeks before the general elections. “Some people smiled. They were hooked like fish,” he wrote, suggesting that the timing influenced voter behaviour.
The government’s $100,000 cash grant for every Guyanese aged 18 and over began rolling out in October 2024, with cheques being printed and distribution underway later that year and into 2025 amid reports of confusion and delays in the system.
According to Harris, President Irfaan Ali later promised a second [$200,000] cash grant and told citizens they would receive the money if they “behaved themselves,” with expectations of payments before Christmas. “They must have misbehaved, because they got nothing. They were shocked and stunned,” Harris wrote, adding that the promise nevertheless contributed to electoral support for both the PPP and the We Invest in Nationhood movement led by Azruddin Mohamed.
Harris argued that there was no budgetary provision to support another cash grant and said many citizens “fell for the lure of easy money.” He noted that the President later declared the grants to be unsustainable.
Independent data and analysis point to broader structural issues underlying Harris’s concerns. Since oil production began in December 2019, Guyana has earned more than US$8 billion in oil revenues, yet poverty remains widespread. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has estimated that 58 per cent of the population lives in poverty and 32 per cent in extreme poverty, while local analysts believe the figures may be higher due to outdated and weak national data-gathering systems.
Harris contrasted the rejection of cash grants as unsustainable with continued state financing of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), which he described as “pouring money down a black hole.” He said promised reforms — including reopened estates, mechanisation and redevelopment of sugar refining — have not materialised, even as the government continues to inject large sums of public funds into the industry.
“The government never considered the money to GuySuCo to be unsustainable,” Harris wrote, arguing that political considerations linked to sugar workers and their trade union played a role. “Whether they produce or not, the sugar workers get their grant. The same does not apply to the rest of the nation.”
Harris also wrote about what he described as the systematic exclusion of Black Guyanese from employment and economic opportunities, linking high unemployment among Black youths to rising crime and violent deaths. He cited recent incidents, including the fatal shooting of a 13-year-old during a robbery, as evidence of a deepening social crisis.
He further argued that rising living costs, stagnant wages and limited employment opportunities are forcing some children to stay out of school due to hunger, embarrassment or inability to afford transportation. “The vicious cycle continues,” Harris wrote.
Separately, trade unions have repeatedly called on the government to implement a living wage, arguing that current salaries do not keep pace with the cost of living, but these calls have not been reflected in major policy changes.
With Budget Day set for Monday, January 26, 2026, Harris predicted that any announced pay increases would disproportionately benefit government officials, further widening inequality.
“Cash grants are not sustainable,” Harris wrote, “but can one say that rising poverty is sustainable? … The situation that exists will not change.”
