Housing Ministry to set up monitoring unit for building materials
THE Ministry of Housing will be seeking to ensure that a monitoring mechanism for the supply and demand for building materials and the prices attached is established and fully enforced. Minister with the portfolio, Irfaan Ali, made this disclosure yesterday in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, when he acknowledged that such a mechanism is vital to the booming construction industry.
He explained, “As you have more and more activity in the oil and gas sector, more construction coming on stream, we have the Marriott Hotel, the four-lane road, the new airport coming on stream; we have all these massive buildings in Georgetown, the demand (for building materials) is increasing and we are carefully monitoring this, we have engaged the Ministry of Public Works and we have to work out a joint mechanism on how we can effectively monitor the changes in material demand and prices.”
He noted too that there have been recent complaints from contractors about various shortages of construction materials such as cement, stone and sand.
Ali suggested that the time has come for a change in mindset and culture to grapple with this issue.
“This is creating an opportunity for us to re-look at our culture, whether we work at night to ensure we can meet that demand, for there is an escalating demand (for materials) creating pressure on supply,” the Housing Minister said.
He reaffirmed his ministry’s commitment to the continuous monitoring of the situation, and assured that the establishment of a monitoring mechanism is “definitively high up on the agenda.”