Dear Editor,
Guyanese, your unease is justified. As oil billions flow, Budget 2026’s numbers betray a calculated fog of exclusion, evasion, and electoral maneuvering. From 30,000 adults scrubbed from cash grant rolls to GECOM’s 86% funding gutting, these aren’t oversights—they’re signals. Let’s dissect the anomalies, connect the dots, and arm citizens with the questions that demand answers.
VP Bharrat Jagdeo promised $63 billion in 2025 for $100,000 to every adult 18+, implying 630,000 recipients via a sweeping registration drive. Budget 2026? A tidy $60 billion—exactly 600,000 heads. Population grew to over 815,000, yet 30,000 eligible adults vanished alongside $3 billion. No explanation. No mop-up.
•2025: $63B allocation, $100k per adult, 630,000 recipients promised post-registration.
•2026: $60B allocation, $100k per adult, 600,000 recipients—30k shortfall unexplained.
Consider this troubling possibility: those 30,000 were registered for grants, then fast-tracked onto voter rolls. The register shrinks, GECOM starves, and the $3B delta vanishes into the ether. Was the grant a voter mobilization tool, discarded post-vote? In an oil-rich nation, this merits investigation, not dismissal.
Local government elections are constitutionally due in 2026 (Article 76, three years post-2023). GECOM sailed on $7.3 billion in 2025 for elections and operations. Now? $981.2 million—a brutal 86% cut for mere Claims/Objec-tions and biometrics. No staffing surge. No voter blitz. No polling infrastructure.
This isn’t oversight; it’s orchestration. Starve GECOM, cripple voter scrutiny, then “discover”, grant, register ghosts align with shrunken rolls—possibly stocked then culled for political utility. Constitutional deadlines be damned—transparency dies first.
•GECOM Total: 2025 $7.3B vs. 2026 $981.2M—an 86% drop.
•Adult Grant: 2025 $63B (630k) vs. 2026 $60B (600k)—a 5% ($3B) contraction.
Oil revenues fund a $1.558 trillion spree under “Putting People First,” with core relief contracts while oversight withers. Connect the threads: purged 30k adults for voter list manipulation ahead of locals; starved GECOM can’t audit or cleanse; missing $3B goes untraced—campaign fuel or crony padding? This isn’t governance; it’s a playbook to entrench power, dodging accountability in an election year. Citizens aren’t props—they’re the rightful owners of every NRF dollar. We call on the joint—opposition forces: Cut the fog with these parliamen-tary demands, tabled immediately.
Adult Grant Reconciliation: Full 2025 beneficiary registers (by region, anony-mized), actual payouts vs. $63B projec-tion, and 2026’s 600k cap justification. Trace the $3B delta—no diversions permitted.
GECOM Work plan Audit: Detailed 2026 spending plan against constitutional election deadlines. Explain the 86% cut and readiness for local government elections.
Forensic Cross-Check: Merge grant and voter databases publicly—expose overlaps, purges, anomalies, and any non-GECOM ID distributions.
Citizens, your voice is the antidote. Demand the registers, force the audits, hold the line. Guyana’s future isn’t theirs to hide—it’s ours to claim.