Non-performing leases; squatting and informal occupation and transfers of public lands are among the top issues which continue to pose major challenges to the Guyana Lands and Survey Commission (GLSC).

At its year-end press conference on Monday, the commission revealed that added to these listed is informal subletting; a highly-dependent paper based operation system and insufficient resources.

GLSC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Commissioner Trevor Benn told media operatives on Monday that while the commission continues to make notable strides, certain groups of consumers are still hampering the possibility for greater progress.

On the matter of non-performing leases, which refers to the non-payment of land rent and non-beneficial occupation of public lands, Benn said that over 60 per cent of current lessees are in arrears and in breach of the beneficial occupation provision of their lease/s.
“In many instances we have persons coming and making demands for lands and producing really good business plans to us…and when you do give it to them it sits inactive, nothing is done with it and they also don’t pay the land rent. So, we’re left with no choice but to repossess some of those lands. It’s causing us a lot of money do the repossession and it’s very tedious and time consuming,” he said.

Benn added that the commission in 2018 published a list of clients who owe in excess of 100,000 in land rent with only 12 per cent of the defaulters responding to date. “We are cautioning people unless you’re quite ready for land; please don’t come at this time. We’re under pressure to deliver on the demands that we have and we would prefer only to give to those people who are really ready,” Benn said.

Meanwhile, many others are engaging in informal subletting and transfers of public lands which the commissioner stated will be met with stern action. He said: “A lot of people have taken the land and then they lease it out other people without our consent which is illegal. We’re finding a number of these cases happening and wherever we find them we’re trying to intervene.”

Benn also addressed the issue of squatting which, for years, has been a major problem for GLSC and is now not only rampant in central parts of the capital city but along some parts of the 45-mile-long Soesdyke-Linden Highway. The commissioner believes that with no functioning body to manage the on goings on the highway, things have taken a turn for the worst.

“We closed the office that used to be able to monitor what was going on the highway…and so today we have wide spread squatting on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway,” he said.
Benn took an understanding stance to the situation but noted that the act is nonetheless obstructive and must eventually come to a halt. “There are people in authority who are giving others approval to squat and in other occasions there are people who are really desperate who are waiting for a long time and they can’t afford to wait anymore, they have to find somewhere to live and so they go and squat,” he said.

“Either way it’s an issue for us and we’ve not been able to deal with this problem in the manner that we should and this will have to be dealt with at a higher level because it is going to affect ordinary people.”

Over the year the commission has executed 1,129 monitoring inspections to address issues related to informal occupation of public lands. Apart from this, Benn also drew attention to sand miners whose activities near the highway contribute to the decay of the over 40-year-old infrastructure.

“Another problem we have there is the unadulterated—if I many use that term–abuse of mining on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway. If you travel along the Soesdyke-Linden Highway you will see the undulations on the road now and I am very fearful that one of these days we will be in our beds and hear we can’t go to Linden anymore because the whole highway is washed away,” Benn said.

“They are mining so close to the buffer zone and they have removed all of the internal roadways which were intended for farmers and other residents to access…I know this is a contentious issue because what we will hear is that the cost of sand mining will have to go up. But, look at the cost of rebuilding the Soesdyke-Linden Highway because of how they are using the sandpits at the moment as against the cost of paying a little bit more for sand.”

He added that there has been no objection to mining on the Highway mining since he entered office but the commission will continue to work on the best approaches to address the issue.

In addition, the GLSC is challenged with inadequate human and financial resources at certain levels even with the 2019 budget allocating an increase of some $163M for capital works and $150M for supplement for salaries.

“The commission has to find all of the rest of the $1.5B to cover the cost associated with the work of the Commission,” he explained. “It’s just a ‘drop in the bucket’ but we are very thankful for what we’ve gotten and we’re trying to make it work.”

Also mentioned was the commission’s high dependence on paper-based operations which is why it is now charging ahead in its transition towards a digital system. It will see the commission linking regional offices to the head office through a Wide Area Network (WAN) which is an ongoing project with improvements already completed in Regions Two, Three, Six, Nine and 10.