It probably looks good on paper, but the Government of Guyana’s $25,000 COVID-19 relief and household support grant, much like its handling of the transmission of the infection and other aspects of the pandemic to date, is far from even handed and shamefully steeped in politics.
On January 31, when contacted by this newspaper and told about complaints from people who were yet to receive their grants, Minister of Local Government Nigel Dharamlall sought to give the assurance that every eligible person in the country will receive the cash as announced by President Irfaan Ali more than four months ago on September 26, 2020.
As of December 28, 2020, 156,376 households had received the grant, according to Minister of Human Services and Social Security Dr Vindhya Persaud whose ministry is charged with distributing the cash. She told a sitting of Parliament that the recipients to date were 8,124 households in Region One; 13,675 in Region Two; 44,097 in Region Three; 20,857 in Region Five; 3,509 in Region Six; 752 in Region Seven; 364 in Region Eight; 7,503 in Region Nine and 13,996 in Region 10. Interestingly, there was no figure given for Region Four, which as is well known has the highest population density in the country. Yet, there is public incontrovertible evidence that some households in Region Four have not received the grants.
In addition, there is a question of eligibility, where some people are required to show, according to Minister Dharamlall, “evidence of their permanence” at places they are renting. Furthermore, in households with more than one family, or where subletting takes place, only the primary householder receives the grant, others get a pink form which they have to fill out to and wait until an audit is done to verify their eligibility.
What is very curious in the lopsided handing out of the COVID-19 relief grant is that people who should be ineligible because of their status (not having lost their income) have been given the $25,000. A case in point is former president David Granger, one of the four living former heads of state eligible for presidential pensions.
In 2015, when the then APNU+AFC government introduced a bill to cap the benefits that a former president could receive, it was revealed that the president’s pension was in the vicinity of $1.4 million per month. However, that figure was likely to change whenever a sitting president received a raise as the pension is tagged at ⅞ of the president’s salary. In addition, the former president was entitled to have all of his utility bills paid regardless of the figure, free medical treatment and reimbursement for himself and dependent family members, full-time personal security, annual vacation allowance and the service of personal and household staff including an attendant and a gardener. All of this was put in place in 2009 under the Bharrat Jagdeo administration. In 2013, then president Donald Ramotar had vetoed a bill passed by the opposition (APNU and AFC) to cap those benefits.
The Former Presidents (Benefits and other Facilities) Act 2015 capped payments for all three utilities at $75,000 a month, limited household staff to three and security personnel to two; clerical or technical staff were also limited to three with the caveat that they are not engaged in any political work. Reimbursement of medical expenses was placed at an annual limit of $200,000.
Assuming Mr Granger is receiving the former president’s pension — and there is no reason why he should not be getting it — the payment of the COVID-19 relief grant to him was not only unnecessary, but farcical. And yet, Mr Granger was publicly paid with a photograph taken so closely by the Department of Public Information, one could almost read the serial numbers on the green $5,000 bills he received. However, not long after, Mr Granger, just as publicly, donated his grant money to needy families at Mocha, East Bank Demerara.
One has to presume then that the other former presidents not currently employed under the PPP/C administration – Mr Ramotar and Mr Sam Hinds – were also recipients of the COVID-19 cash grant, even though, like Mr Granger, they are drawing at least $1.4 million every month in pensions.
Meanwhile, there are thousands of Guyanese who lost their jobs because their workplaces closed or cut back on production owing to COVID-19 still waiting for that handout. Others who were prohibited from vending or who like artists could not perform and lost their source of income are yet to receive that one-off $25,000. In addition, there are hundreds of mothers struggling to feed and educate their children who might never receive it. Because of where they live – they might be squatters, or subletters, or just staying with family because they have nowhere else to go – they could be considered ineligible to receive cash deemed as “relief and household support”.
At the end of December, President Ali announced another “one-off grant of $25,000 to workers of the entire public sector, which includes central government, statutory bodies, subvention agencies, public corporations, government pensioners and staff of the University of Guyana, to assist these workers to cope with the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic…
“This initiative will also extend to workers of GuySuCo …those sugar workers who are unconscionably deprived of their livelihood by the APNU+AFC government …”
This is all very well, but when he had announced the first grant in September, along with other relief measures, President Ali had said, “So this $25,000 per household, I know, will go a far way in supporting those who are vulnerable and in critical need.” Clearly, this is not happening as hundreds of those who are vulnerable and in need are the people having difficulty collecting.
It would appear that the temptation to politicise even this pittance being offered is too great to resist. It is not so much about eligibility as it is about putting on a show. Someone once said that the moral test of government is how it treats the most vulnerable. This government is racing towards a fail.
