Towards better delivery…
CENTRAL Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ms. Myrna Pitt disclosed, Friday, that, in its continuing effort to improve service delivery to people, its regional offices will be linked directly to the main database in Georgetown.
She was addressing residents, at the Ministry of Housing and Water first ‘One Stop Shop’ outreach for the year in Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam), at Anna Regina Town Hall on Essequibo Coast.
Pitt said: “We believe in the user based definition of quality and embrace the quality principle of being customer focused as we seek, in this tangible way, to give service to you.”
She assured that the CH&PA is committed to providing a responsive service that meets people’s needs.
“And, in this regard, this outreach is one service delivery option which we have chosen to improve the way we deliver our services to you.”
Pitt said the agency has also implemented the ‘One Stop Shop’ at its Head Office, where applicants can now have their applications processed in real time in that interviews can be concluded in one visit.
She said the link being created is to allow for the timely processing of applications and real time update of their main database.
Pitt said it will be a critical aspect of the upgrade of the Ministry’s current management information system coming on stream shortly.
“In instances where occupancy in the schemes of Region Two is below the desired target, I would like to urge those of you who already have your allocations to occupy your lots,” she urged.
Pitt said, if there are any outstanding issues which might have impacted on their ability to start construction, they could have used the Friday opportunity to raise and have them addressed.
She said the financial institutions have been responding well and, in fact, interests on mortgages are now as low as 4.9 per cent.
Pitt reported that, in 2009, expenditure on the housing sector was approximately $7.5 billion, resulting in a construction boom and an increase in occupancy rate.
One notable contributor to this performance was the revival of the highly successful and welcomed ‘One Stop Shop’ programme which delivered benefit to some 10,000 people as it facilitated improved response time for the processing of applications, interviews and allocation of house lots.
During that year, too, about 4,334 house lots and 4,257 land titles, respectively, were processed and disbursed, she said.