The government has recommenced the distribution of the $100,000 cash grants following the passage of the 2025 National Budget. However, some persons have complained of their cheques being given to other persons with similar names while others have shown up at distribution sites only to be disappointed since their cheques were not yet printed.
Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday said while he is unaware of cases where cheques were given to the wrong people, the Ministry of Finance needs to address the issues and complaints associated with the distribution process.
“If it was indeed issued, then we have a problem and we have to fix it. I would want them to build safeguards in the system to ensure this doesn’t happen,” Jagdeo said in response to a question about situations where cheques are being uplifted by the wrong persons.
So far, a total of 545,000 cheques have been printed while over 200,000 have been distributed.
“They [the Ministry of Finance] have to verify then print the cheques. So the number registered may not be the same number of cheques printed,” he explained, noting that in some cases, only 75% of the registrations have been verified for one location, leading to some persons being unable to collect their cheque at the same time with others.
“This is something they need to be better with,” he noted.
Asked about persons who may have fallen ill or left the country since registering, the Vice President said the cheques will be there when they are able to uplift.
He disclosed however that work is already ongoing to deliver the cash grant to “shut ins” or persons who are disabled.
The $100,000 cash grant is available to Guyanese citizens who are 18 years or older.
A total of $60 billion was budgeted for the venture in the 2024 and 2025 budgets combined.
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