…admit ‘quite a bit of work to do’

MINISTER of Foreign Affairs and First Vice-President Carl Greenidge, assessing the well-attended outreach, said, “the public seemed to welcome the oppourtunity to meet with the ministers, and I suppose that is not surprising.”

He noted that a few areas or ministries attracted more attention than others such as housing, roads and jobs. In his ministry’s case, the minister said there were some who were happy to meet him, some whom he knew and were happy to “gaff” and others who had urgent problems and understood that those would take time to resolve. He rated the response “as favourable overall.”

“The outreach was a chance to meet people with real issues,” so said Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman, as he gave a wrap-up of the ministerial outreach. The minister was enthused with the response and added that he was “humbled to see so many people coming out to voice their concerns and voice their praise for what we are doing.” Many of those whom the minister met at his booth had to resolve issues of opportunities, access to mining lands, mining permits and he acknowledged that there is still a “quite a bit of work to do.”

In terms of response, Minister Trotman said, he has set a time frame of two weeks to resolve those issues for which persons sought assistance, “some of them will be addressed within days but at the most it will be two weeks.” More than 100 persons sought assistance from the Natural Resources Ministry and at least 40 were dealt with directly by Trotman.

Attendance at the event, the minister noted, was a clear indication that more has to be done despite his ministerial colleagues being busy: “Obviously, the people need us to touch them in a more direct and personal way, so I’ll recommend that we do more of these exercises on a regular basis, not only in Georgetown, but in other regions and districts as well.”

The ministry will host its next mining lottery—tentatively– on April 10 at Port Kaituma and April 17 at Bartica.

Minister of Citizenship, Winston Felix, noted that his department has been reaching out to communities as part of efforts to take its services directly to communities, countrywide. He noted: “the demand now is not so great as it was two years ago.” Though his section was fully staffed, there were only a few persons seeking advice or resolutions to issues covered by the ministry.

The Ministry of Legal Affairs saw its fair share of persons, many of whom had various legal issues. Unable to spend most of the day due to several high-level engagements, Attorney General Basil Williams, SC, said his staffers met persons and took their relevant information, offering legal advice. He described the activity as “a good thing.”

Giving his assessment, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan said that his ministry’s booth attracted more than 200 persons. He noted that at least 99% of the visitors left satisfied after meeting with his staff on hand. He viewed the outreach as “a wonderful exercise and added, “I believe we will hold this again. The thousands who would have left here today,

would have left satisfied, at least because they got to share their concerns with a minister.” He revealed that on April 5, the National insurance Scheme will be hosting an open house at its Camp Street office to meet the public and address their issues.