Following Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo’s announcement that Guyanese living abroad are eligible for the $100,000 cash grant, the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) today criticized the move, calling it “another avenue for corruption.”
At his press conference on Thursday, Jagdeo disclosed that while overseas Guyanese can receive the grant, they must return to Guyana with a valid local identification card or passport and complete a registration process in person. He specifically highlighted that proxies will not be allowed and the grant will not be paid overseas.
However, the PNC/R still fears that there is room for corruption. “While we believe that Guyanese from the diaspora who are in Guyana, registered and have a national identification card should be able to access the $100,000 one of cash grant, we are deeply concerned that what Jagdeo and the PPP are doing is creating another avenue for corruption,” said PNC/R leader Aubrey Norton.
Norton argued that the grant, initially presented as a way to help Guyanese cope with the high cost of living, did not appear to include the diaspora in President Dr. Irfaan Ali’s original announcement. “Clearly, this is another of Jagdeo wildcat schemes that emerged after Ali’s announcement,” Norton stated.
He warned that extending the cash grant to overseas Guyanese could open a ‘loophole’ to benefit the PPP elite, their families, friends, and favorites at the expense of the people of Guyana.
The party leader also questioned the government’s priorities in funding the diaspora grant, stating, “This new pronouncement also raises the question, how is it you had no money to pay a little below 15,000 teachers, but you are finding money to pay thousands of Guyanese in the diaspora?”
Norton further suggested that, given the PPP’s track record, the diaspora cash grant could be a ploy to support PPP’s campaign for the 2025 General and Regional Elections. As such, he called on the government to implement a verification system similar to the GECOM registration process, which would include an opposition scrutineer to verify each registered recipient.
“This will go a far way in ensuring transparency and accountability and avoid a repeat of the corruption and discrimination that marred the COVID-19 cash transfer,” he said.
Norton:
Should greedy East Indians come to collect the money you know what to do: You gather the “freedom fighters”, all your kith and kin and kill them.
Simple.
You useless creatures have been killing East Indians for decades.
Even Dr. Walter Rodney, who was a black, stated that “there is a flavour of genocide” in the killings.