Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC, announced on Tuesday evening that the government has successfully distributed over 500,000 cheques for its $100,000 cash grant initiative for citizens 18-years and older.
Speaking during his weekly programme “Issues in the News”, Nandlall addressed concerns and criticisms of the distribution process.
“Over 500,000 cheques have already been distributed. We have, loosely, about 100,000 cheques more to be distributed,” the AG said.
Acknowledging the challenges faced during the distribution process, the minister noted that an exercise of this magnitude will inevitably face challenges in its execution.
“Did we encounter difficulties? Yes, we did, and we are not ashamed to accept the difficulties that we encountered. But compare those difficulties with the successes, and I would conclude, respectfully, that the initiative on the whole was an overwhelming success because for every one transaction that had some difficulty, 200 succeeded,” Nandlall stated.
Further, he criticized those attempting to undermine the initiative and addressed concerns raised about those who registered but died before the cheque was issued.
The Attorney General explained that the government amended the Deceased Persons Estate Administration Act on November 25, 2024, to allow for easier access to funds. “Whereby we permitted and authorized any person, organization, entity, bank, company or government, who has money for any deceased person to pay that money to a duly authorized first relative of the deceased, up to $750,000,” he stated.
The minister explained that the immediate family of the deceased – spouse or children – must provide a death certificate along with a marriage certificate or other proof of relationship. In the case of a common-law union, a reference would be required to establish the relationship with the deceased.
The Attorney General clarified that if a cheque is unavailable due to an error when someone arrives at a distribution center, it will be returned to the Ministry of Finance and reissued at a later time.
He said, “You will get an opportunity to receive that cheque, either at the distribution center or at some point that will be announced.”
Moreover, he also debunked misinformation about the validity period of the cheques, stating, “And let me clear another issue, some crazy person on social media was spreading the misleading information that the cheques are valid for three days. I hope that you have realized that that is foolishness.”
He clarified that cheques ordinarily are valid for six months. “This is a government of Guyana cheque, and it is valid as long as the government of Guyana says it is valid, meaning beyond the six months and further, if the government says that it is valid beyond. So, you don’t have to worry about the cheque being invalid, because there are persons out there who wish to deliberately mislead you,” the Attorney General stated.
