THE City Engineer’s Department of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) is currently working with six building inspectors from a required strength of 15.
City Engineer Colvern Venture is therefore hoping the new council will allow more resources to be diverted to his department.

“Many times we are working under a lot of constraints. We’re hoping that with the new council, they will place a lot of emphasis on the required resources that would be needed for my department to improve the efficiency,” Venture told the Guyana Chronicle in an invited comment on Friday at City Hall.

During last year, the department came under heavy criticism for its lacklustre approach to dealing with the public; and for officers ‘dragging’ their feet on getting plans ready on time for applicants.

“There is shortage of staff in the building inspection section in which the building inspectors are tasked with very large areas. In terms of balancing their work, sometimes they have the challenge of getting it done on time,” Venture observed.

He also highlighted that some applicants submit their plans without all of the required information such as contact numbers. Even when they do leave numbers, Venture said in some cases, the officers would still struggle to make contact with them.
“There are cases where plans may be ready for approval but because of these many meetings we have, applicants sometimes have to return. But that is minor because that doesn’t happen very often,” Venture said.

Regarding issues among senior officers in the department where cooperation had been lacking, Venture said while there are still some hiccups and issues to be sorted out, the situation has improved somewhat.

As for bribery allegations which have time and again plagued the said department, Venture said such allegations have to be proven. “Many times you ask persons to submit an official document so we can initiate an investigation and they don’t want to. You need to name these officers and give sufficient evidence so that we can launch an investigation.”
Former Mayor Patricia Chase-Green had often complained about the issues in the engineer’s department and had even threatened to place errant officers before the Human Resources Department for disciplinary action.

Chase-Green had said she was “tired” of receiving complaints against that department and its senior building inspectors. “You’re dodging the people, hiding from them, telling them to come back over and over,” she had complained, adding: “The attitude of those in the engineer’s department stinks; their attitude towards citizens is unacceptable.”

With respect to allegations in the past of rampant corruption in the City Engineer’s Department, Chase-Green once famously said: “The only time you hear about the City Engineer’s Department, is when they are taking bribes all over the place.”

She had also complained once during a statutory meeting about the abysmal treatment being meted out to the public by the City Engineer’s and City Treasurer’s Departments.
“Go and come, go and come, go and come” is what customers are subjected to, without any consideration being paid to the time and cost that citizens have to expend, the mayor had said.