Govt reviewing “fiscally unsustainable” $10,000 cash grant
July 17, 2015 | By KNews | Filed Under News, Source
The continuance of the $10,000 cash grant that was offered to each public school child by the previous administration last year will be dependent on the outcome of a review being undertaken by Government.
This development was confirmed by Minister of Governance, Raphael Trotman, at the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing convened at the Ministry of the Presidency on Wednesday.
Trotman disclosed that while the decision to introduce the grant was a laudable idea it was badly implemented. He also noted that the review was premised on the fact that Cabinet was advised that it is a fiscally unsustainable endeavour.
“When one studies developmental economics, when you give a grant or cash transfer it must be accompanied or guided by a means test,” Trotman explained.
A means test is a determination of whether an individual or family is eligible for government assistance, based upon whether the individual or family possesses the means to do without that help. Moreover, Trotman underscored that the purpose of the review is to ensure that the most vulnerable in society are the sole or primary beneficiaries of the grant.
“So to have a grant of $10,000 to every school child without it being focused to those who need it more is not fiscally sustainable for any economy, and particularly ours,” the Governance Minister noted.
As such he asserted “we want to review it to ensure that, for example, a child who would have previously received $10,000 but is living in abject poverty would now in fact receive $100,000 whereas a child…going to a private school would not receive a $10,000 (grant) because it would be depriving a child who really needs it.”
Trotman therefore informed that the grant for now has been stopped in light of the fact that economic standards would not allow for it to be continued in the manner that it was done under the previous administration. He however assured that Government is prepared to continue the $1,500 uniform voucher to public school children.
The cash grant, which was introduced for the first time last year by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic government, was afforded to children attending nursery, primary and secondary level schools across the country. It was said to be an initiative being undertaken because of Government’s interest in the education of children and was thus labelled the “Because We Care Cash Grant.”
On Wednesday, too, Trotman announced that Government has approved a contract for the supply of exercise books for schoolchildren countrywide.
The contract sum, to the tune of $63,341,598 has been awarded to the Guyana National Printers Limited. And according to the Minister, “this is a demonstration of Government’s continuing interest in the proper and orderly education of our children.”