With public responding well…
MINISTER of Housing and Water, Mr. Irfaan Ali has reported that the public is responding well to his ministry’s campaign against the illegal sales of allocated house lots.

Minister of Housing and Water, Mr. Irfaan Ali checks out the new automated application system at the ministry.

In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, he said it was the response to an aggressive campaign through which they are getting a lot of information.

Ali disclosed that, as recent as last Saturday, his ministry was informed about a confidence trickster operating in Parfaite/Harmonie, West Bank Demerara, identifying lots and collecting money.

The Minister said the man is also posing as a Ministry of Housing employee and the Police have been told.

“We have had instances where persons who were part of the transaction are volunteering information. So we have had a lot of successes in this,” Ali said.

He explained:“The success of this, though, is as a result of the field audits that we are conducting and we are going to intensify the field audits in other housing areas, especially the high prone areas and these include Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara; Diamond, East Bank Demerara and some parts of Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne), which are very susceptible to this type of activity.”

Ali repeated his warning against the illicit selling of allocated house lots and encouraged persons who have knowledge of unlawful transactions to report them and assist with the taking of necessary action.

He said since the drive started, several persons have been charged and placed before the Courts.

Ali, talking about the new automated online application system, said it is functioning effectively, so far.

“This is part of the strategic vision of the Ministry and Central Housing and Planning Authority and that is to modernise the operations in the effort to improve efficiency and reliability and reduce the cost of transactions,” he said.

Ali said the methodology is more customer oriented and delivers better service in a very effective and efficient manner.

Meanwhile, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr. Emil McGarrell said, to ensure that house lots are occupied and persons’ dreams are realised, they have embarked on a programme of repossessing house lots.

Speculative purposes
According to him:“Many persons, for a number of years, have held house lots for speculative purposes and, while they are doing that, there are other Guyanese who have need for them and are not getting access.”

To this end, McGarrell said the ministry has begun to repossess house lots, so as to make sure that those persons who really need are able to get and reduce the incidence of speculation.

He said, although some people may think repossession is that the Ministry is taking back their land, it is not exactly the case.

“The case is that the Ministry would like to engage those persons in discussion and put in arrangements so as to ensure that, if they are not ready to build right now, they can release those lands to persons who are ready and, when they are, they can approach the Ministry again to be allocated,” McGarrell said.

He said they do not want to have a situation in which people are owning lands for a number of years for speculative purposes while other home seekers, who are willing to pay, develop their lots and build their homes now, cannot access any.

McGarrell emphasised that occupancy of the housel lots is very important.

“We would like to see upwards of 70 to 75 per cent occupancy in these housing areas that we are developing, because, if we can demonstrate occupancy to that level, it means that we can be able to access additional resources for developing new areas,” he posited.

McGarrell said it is very important that people understand that the repossession is part of that programme.

He said, in some communities, there are a lot of house lots which have been unoccupied for a number of years.

“As part of the strategy is the repossession, with the automated system processing house lots faster and with the ‘One Stop Shop’ programme, we will be able to accelerate and raise the level of occupancy in the housing schemes across the country.

“It is another part of the dynamic new thing that is being done at the Ministry, to ensure that all the dreams of Guyanese to own their own homes are realised,” the Permanent Secretary said.