CHAIRMAN of the Board of Directors of the Central Housing and Planning Authority, (CHPA) Hamilton Green has said that the agency will no longer be accepting substandard work and contractors who fail to deliver will be branded “not good people.” The chairman, speaking at a press conference on Friday, outlined a number of measures to be taken by the entity in its quest to make ‘change’ its new watchword.
The forum at the boardroom of the CH&PA included Chief Development Planner Rawle Edinboro, who addressed the board and the media on the performance of the CH&PA during 2015, while rolling out plans for the year ahead.
Said Green: “The board has been examining over the past few weeks the performance of the CH&PA and it is clear that the watchword is change, the new theme is change….When I say change, I am serious, it is a total concept.”
He concurred with Mr Edinboro that this change should be consistent with the vision of the new government and President David Granger’s vision.
Mr Green said that the CH&PA at the level of the administration has been doing their best in the circumstances, but the board is not satisfied that the entity has been getting value for money.
Sounding a warning about the imminent change to be made in this regard, the chairman said: “We have already put the staff on notice that the CH&PA will no longer accept substandard work and contractors who have failed to deliver will be considered not good people,” Mr Green said.
SUBSTANDARD ROADS
Referring to the issue of roads, he cited the 0.5 kilometres of roadway built at Hope, West Coast Berbice, which the CH&PA had paid for, but which had lasted only a few weeks.
“It is in a deplorable state and we will look at those contractors and that kind of work which is not unusual. We have some very good public officers, but my experience is that sometimes what you receive in writing is not necessarily the reality on the ground,” Mr Green said.
To this end, visits to various communities will commence shortly to hear and see what are some of the problems in order to come back to the board and make appropriate decisions and deal with people who are interested in performance and not underperformance.
ZONING
On the issue of zoning, Mr Green disclosed that a number of licence applications for beer gardens and rum shops in communities have had to be rejected over the past few weeks, particularly along the coastal belt.
Even though guidelines have been set prohibiting any liquor establishments near to mosques, temples, churches or schools, these continue to be violated.
“Even though we are not purists, we have to save our young people and the communities from this assault on family life and morals by all these drinking stores being established, quite whimsically throughout the length and breadth of Guyana,” the CH&PA board chairman said.
Another key area of focus will be the narrowing of the gap between urban and rural communities, Mr Green said. In addition, at the initiative of the government and Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan, the chairman said the CH&PA will be engaging the services of new entities that would be involved in home construction throughout the country.
He outlined that the government is very conscious of the present shortcomings in terms of materials, staffing, skills, and therefore is willing to engage the assistance of external agencies.
“We are doing that because our objective is to ensure that we deliver on our promises for the next period,” the Chairman stated.
SKILLS SHORTAGE
Noting that there is a serious haemorrhaging of skills to the Caribbean and North America, not only building skills but generally, he said the board will likely consider what can be done to increase the skills available in Guyana and is looking at several training institutions.
Meanwhile, the CH&PA is ensuring that it improves its relations with all of the municipalities and will address this at the end of Local Government Elections (LGE).
“We will engage the attention of all the new municipalities – the mayors, the chairmen of the LDCs because I expect that we will be dealing with a new crop of leaders.” That engagement, he said, will include all of the agencies: the Central Board of Health, municipalities, Fire and Security Services.

By Shirley Thomas