Georgetown, Ministry of Finance, December 31, 2020:
Following the announcement earlier today by His Excellency President Irfaan Ali of a one-off grant of $25,000 for all public sector employees, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh has stated that he has already instructed his Ministry to commence processing of the grant immediately.
Following His Excellency’s announcement this afternoon, I have already issued instructions within the Ministry of Finance for steps to be taken immediately to process this grant and my staff within the Ministry have already started that work. Our intention is to ensure that public sector employees receive this grant immediately, so work is ongoing as we speak to ensure that processing is done as swiftly as possible,” the Senior Finance Minister assured.
The Minister added that the one-off payment is to be made to all public servants, teachers, members of the Disciplined Services, employees of statutory bodies, subvention agencies and employees of public corporations such as the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO). Additionally, public service and Disciplined Services pensioners will also receive the one-off grant.
This one-off grant will see in excess of $2B being paid to more than 60,000 public sector employees. This grant is being paid by Government in recognition of the hardships that have been faced and the very challenging circumstances that have faced the employees of the public sector and their families,” Minister Singh reiterated.
The Senior Finance Minister noted that the one-off grant not only forms part of Government’s many other initiatives designed to bring relief to frontline workers and to households across Guyana, but is also a mechanism to stimulate economic activity in the country as it will allow for $2B to be placed in the hands of employees in the public sector, who will in turn consume or spend the disposable income in markets, shops, or other businesses within the country. Alluding to other initiatives recently implemented by Government and still ongoing, Minister Singh reminded that the one-off grant is to be viewed alongside and in addition to other recent initiatives such as the 2-weeks tax free bonus announced earlier this month for members of the Disciplined Services as well as essential Health care workers and the Covid-19 emergency $25,000 payment currently being made to Heads of households countrywide.
Put together, the Covid Relief Programme…. the bonus paid to the Disciplined Services and frontline health sector workers and the one-off grant announced today….the sum total of those is more than $10 Billion dollars put in the hands of the people of Guyana,” the Minister concluded.