– Felix assures

By Nafeeza Yahya
RESIDENTS of Berbice will soon have no necessity to travel to Georgetown in connection with application for, and uplifting of, passports.

The long wait — for hours — to have their passport applications processed, and the necessity to make the trip a second time a week later to uplift the document will soon be things of the past.

Minister of Citizenship, Winston Felix, gave this assurance on Saturday when he, as part of a team of government ministers led by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who is performing the functions of President, went on an outreach exercise to that county.

Minister Felix said a building has already been identified in Corriverton to set up the office, so that residents of Corentyne would be able to apply, for and receive, their machine readable passports right in the Upper Corentyne area.

He said it is now only a matter of getting the necessary equipment and staff in place.

This announcement drew resounding applause from his appreciative audience. A number of persons had attended the meeting to have that very issue addressed.

“In relation to immigration services to this community, you can come here and apply for a machine readable passport, have your information taken here, and you can receive you passport here.
It is pointless to have a service in Georgetown which is a burden. It is not nice to see people lining up from 6 am.

“We can do it with the passport, and we can do it with the birth certificate, which will be eventually issued right here.
It is the President’s wish that in these towns we provide services so that it makes the lives of people easier,” Felix stated.

Residents of Corentyne communities stretching from Lancaster to Molesen Creek took to the town of Corriverton for the meeting as the Ministry of the Presidency continued its outreach in East Berbice/Corentyne.

The initiative, started by Minister of State Joe Harmon, sees ministers of government taking to various communities to air their concerns and issues and have same addressed. In most instances, some issues are dealt with on the spot, but others are noted and passed on to the relevant ministries or officials.

In attendance was acting President Moses Nagamootoo, who applauded Minister Harmon for taking the government to the people and being able to hear and see first-hand the issues that affect residents. He appealed for patience in dealing with some issues, but pledged that all issues would be addressed.

“Today I want to complement Joseph Harmon for having taken the initiative to take our government to the people. It is a revolutionary experience that I deem the mobile government, the open government; and this is the government that must be built on the basis of partnership among the people and their elected leaders. We are your servants,” he told those gathered.

Albert Welcome, 75, a resident of Limlair Village, made the forty-minute trip to meet with officials from the Ministry of Communities; he said his issue was the drainage in his community: “It needs digging, soon the weather will change. The sea defence was fixed recently (Bush Lot/Adventure) and is also broken again; they just putting boulders and mesh and they are not putting anything to tie it; it needs cement for it to hold, so I am hoping they look into it,” he explained.

Acting President Nagamootoo told the large gathering that all their issues will be dealt effectively.

“If the people are unable, for various reasons, to go to Government, Government must come to its people; and that’s why we are here. I want to caution you, though, that your problems are many. We will listen to you, (but) it will take some time for some of the problems to be addressed; and therefore, you have to exercise patience.

“We have been in Government in less than one year; we are settling in, and we are finding in all our ministries and government buildings problems, and it will take some time to get all of our issues addressed,” he explained.

Evadney Wilson, a resident of Princeton, Corriverton, said she was pleased that she had her issues addressed in an efficient manner. She said everyone was welcoming and professional, and she was happy she didn’t have to go all the way to Georgetown.

The acting President said the ministerial outreaches are not political events.

“Our government is about bringing service to its people. This is not a political forum; this is not an occasion to play politics. This is an occasion for us to do our duty — our civic governance duty. It’s to come to the people and to listen to them and to address their problems,” the acting President adumbrated.

Minister Harmon, in his short address to the gathering, assured the residents that Government is serious about its commitment, has kept its promise, and is delivering to the people what it said it would.

“These outreaches are about taking the service of government to the people… Our coalition is about making hard decisions for the benefit of the lives of its people, and I believe that our first year in office, I believe by far and large, we have delivered.

“We have come out here to Corriverton to continue delivering that quality of which you have now become accustomed. I don’t believe in any other point of time or in the history of our country that we had these types of ministerial engagements. We are not just here as a talking shop; we are going to try to resolve issues, and we will try to make decisions here. We promised that issues that cannot be dealt with on site will be taken back to the office and (given) a timely response.”

Among the chief issues raised were poor streets and roads; need for street lighting; issues with water, drainage and irrigation; allegations of nepotism at the regional level in the award of contracts; problems getting NIS benefits, and the need for electricity in certain communities, among others.

With regard to nepotism, several contractors levelled allegations at the Regional Tender Board of Region #6, and at its chairman, the Regional Executive officer of Region 6, Dr. Ramayya, claiming he is awarding work only to a select few contractors (names given) while the others are being sidelined.

The group was very vocal and verbally attacked the REO personally, accusing him of taking money from the said contractor in return for work.

The REO denied the allegations and said he is planning to file a lawsuit against the individuals for levelling the allegations against him.