FISHERMEN, miners, and other groups who may have missed the government’s cash-grant registration process can now breathe a sigh of relief.
Vice President, D. Bharrat Jagdeo, on Friday last revealed that the government is working on a supplementary system to ensure that all eligible citizens have access to the much-anticipated cash grants.

During a press conference on Friday, Dr Jagdeo reiterated the government’s commitment to inclusivity in the distribution process. Acknowledging the challenges faced by some groups during the initial registration period, he assured the public that additional measures would be implemented to address these concerns.

“If you miss the number of days that those registering people or in your community, you would have another opportunity,” he explained. “We are going to make sure that we announce a supplementary kind of approach, or our people may be able to go to the post office wherever,” the Vice President added.

Dr. Jagdeo emphasised that no one who qualifies for the grant will be excluded because of logistical or scheduling issues. He specifically addressed the concerns of those who might have been out of the country, working at sea, or otherwise unavailable during the registration period.

As he stated, “You are not going to lose that money if you didn’t get an opportunity to register, for example, you are busy on that day or those days, you’re out of the country, or you are at sea or somewhere else. So, the fishermen and the others don’t have to worry, or the miners, for example, if you’re a miner and you miss the area, you don’t have to worry about that,” Dr Jagdeo assured.

While the government’s registration process has been running smoothly, the distribution has faced a few challenges. Dr Jagdeo revealed that adjustments are being made to improve the current distribution process. He acknowledged these challenges and expressed the need for better communication between the various ministries of government and the public.
“I saw the situation with some public servants and teachers, and it should have never happened. And we need to devise in the ministries better ways of communicating with people,” he stated.

Dr Jagdeo detailed the challenges encountered by the Ministry of Finance and the distribution team. He explained that while the ministry had cheques ready for the majority of people they invited, a small percentage of cheques were not yet prepared.
“There was a rush to try to get the cheques out before the end of the year to as many people as possible, particularly the public servants. So, often when people register, they then have to move to verification and then the cheques are cut. So, as they were verifying, they were cutting the cheques. So, if they finish a batch of verification, they cut the cheques.”

He further explained, “In the ministry, you may have like 80% of the cheques cut, whilst the 20% has gone for verification. What happened is that they invited everyone out and they said, come and collect. So, the 20% of people who did not have their cheques cut too for that day, they showed up too in some cases, and they were disappointed and it should have never happened.”

Dr Jagdeo also assured the public that measures will be taken to enhance communication channels with the Guyanese people. “We should have had a better system to identify those and only invite those in. So, we have spoken with the Ministry of Finance and they have to move to a better system or have a more conscientious way of approaching it by the managers of the different agencies,” he further said. “We do have to find ways of getting the distribution better.”