Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, during his press conference today, explained that the government is still working out what constitutes a household that will benefit from the $200,000 one-off cash grant announced by President Dr Irfaan Ali.
However, he made it clear that landlords with multiple buildings will not benefit from multiple collections, and that arrangements will be made for secondary households on the same property to benefit.
Renters, he explained, will also benefit; but non-nationals living/renting here will not.
Jagdeo said the distribution exercise will require a strict process of verification.
He explained that while the census shows there are 264,000 heads of households in the country, the government knows this number of greater.
“We believe the census did not capture everyone,” the Vice President expressed.
He said the government will be utilising databases from the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) and the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) to determine who are legitimate heads of households.
For hinterland communities, he explained that the verification process is less complicated since those villages are smaller and the Toshaos are in a position to give advice on legitimate households.
Jagdeo said in areas where multiple households are living in the same building, the distributors will allocate the grants to the primary household first, and then make provisions for the secondary households, if proven to be legitimate.
He said the government’s intention is to ensure every legitimate household benefits and that the distribution is done in a fair manner without people ‘ripping off the system’.
“We still have to work it through,” the Vice President added.
President Ali has said the distribution of the one-off grants will begin soon.
