The Community Roads Improvement Programme (CRIP) is a matter of national priority in the Government system of Guyana.

This is according to Minister of Housing and Water and acting Minister of Tourism Industry and Commerce, Mr. Irfaan Ali, who was at the time delivering remarks at a recent monitoring and evaluation consultation forum at the Roraima Duke Lodge in Duke Street Kingston.
Ali lauded the CRIP staff for their efficiency in this project, while pointing out that strong supervision and ensuring savings in the project were important, as well as effectively deploying these savings on priority matters.
He acknowledged community members and groups as well as the CRIP’s partnership with the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) when the programme had begun a few years ago.
Ali underscored that the NDCs are very important assets in governance and they are a very important arm of the government structure.
He explained that the NDCs are the direct link to a community as they deliver good news and bad news as well as pleasure and displeasure to a community.
Ali opined that NDCs play the most challenging part in the governmental system, and added that CRIP seeks to build a strong monitoring and supervisory mechanism.
According to him, it is important to not only ensure quality within this project, but also the contactors compliance with the bill of quantities and ensuring the efficient delivery and long term sustainability of the project.
With regard to the institutional strengthening of this project, he noted that it is vital that there are properly trained and equipped personnel with the responsibility of ensuring that the roads are properly maintained.
Ali posited that it is important not just to do the physical work but to also build institution capacity and enhance the human resource skills within the NDCs in order to have a more efficient level of governance at the community level.
He said that there are utterly important aspects of the project that one should not lose sight of, including the fact that it has benefitted over 79, 000 people and has created employment for over 400 persons.
Ali reported that the project is approximately 85 per cent complete and its total road works is almost 95 per cent complete.
He said that with an investment of some $2.8B, more than 100 km of road have been built but all can be lost if there isn’t proper institutional mechanism that can properly manage effective human resources for the long term sustainability of the project.
According to him,  a component of CRIP which dealt with institutional strengthening sought to increase community awareness and participation which had then sought to develop monitoring and evaluations systems and also sought to provide training in finances, administration tax collection and tax collection revenue so as to be financially sustained etc.
He noted that every NDC wishes to be financially viable, to have their residents pay their taxes, to have services provided in an efficient manner and to have revenue collected in a very efficient manner as well.
He opined that the burden and demand for a greater level of service is indeed increasing in NDCs, where residents are raising issues such as garbage collection, community safety, all of which affect governance at the local level.
Ali asserted that he is very pleased that the project components were focused on enhancing the human resource capacity in order to have a better functioning local government system and better functioning NDCs.
The trained NDCs in this project, he said, should use themselves as pilot NDCs to share that training with the other NDCs which were not included with the project and just sit with the knowledge.
He said that the selected NDCs should feel privileged while the others that were not selected should not feel neglected or isolated.
He recommended that Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs) put together a team of NDC officials from the pilot NDCs that can further train other NDCs so that the knowledge and skills can be shared to develop the other NDCs in order for them to benefit from the investment and training as well.
Ali revealed that a CRIP Two project is being looked at and with help from the Ministry of Finance CRIP will be able to successfully move from CRIP One to CRIP Two with the same success that CRIP One would have been having over the years.
He concluded that sustainability in this project is a matter of national interest and reiterated that with CRIP as a national priority, all focus is being put in ensuring knowledge and training is put together in the various communities.
Project Coordinator Ms Karen Roopchand outlined that the CRIP is being implemented by the Local Government and Housing Ministries at a cost of almost US$18.7M.
She explained that it would have improved livelihood in the regions that it was implemented in Regions 3 (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara), 4 (Demerara/Mahaica), 5 (Mahaica/Berbice) and 6 (East Berbice/Corentyne).
Roopchand noted that the CRIP has improved the social and economic infrastructure of many communities but the sustainability of the project is of utmost importance.
She pointed out that it is the responsibility of the RDCs and NDCs to ensure that the roads are maintained.
She asserted that in July 2011 an effective monitoring and evaluation system was implemented for high priority sustainability and in July 2012, a sensitisation system was introduced for the same purpose.
CRIP Consultant Ms Erica Rapier said that this project provides a modern road transport network which benefits the selected regions in Guyana.
She pointed out that they are all well designed and with a proper monitoring and evaluation system, managers are able to make proper decisions which will assist them and bettering the roads.
She noted that at the end of the construction period, CRIP officials would often visit these roads for inspection to ensure that they are properly maintained.
She said that it was discovered that the level of maintenance of these roads in some area is quite low and thus far through funding and assistance from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) 266 roads have been constructed.
The CRIP is a multi-million dollar road project being implemented by the Government of Guyana, through the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development and the Ministry of Housing and Water, and it is aimed at improving access to housing, education, health and other social infrastructure through the improvement and upgrading of roads in existing housing schemes.