THE Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) will be using the four-tier housing policy, which was outlined by President David Granger, as a new guide.

According to a press statement from CH&PA, minister with responsibility for Housing, Annette Ferguson, in outlining her vision, said honesty will be the agency’s new watchword while efficiency will be the road map to effectiveness.

Minister Ferguson said the President’s policy gives life to the agency’s work and will guide the programmes and policies to be rolled out in the near future.
The President’s guiding policy for housing rests on four pillars, namely: Re-orientation, Resources, Regularisation and Regionalisation.

Re-orientation refers to giving priority to the housing needs of the most vulnerable, low-income public servants desirous of becoming first-time home-owners.

Resources, emphasises holistic community development and will go beyond the provision of house lots and housing units. It will cater to the needs of residents including education, electricity, fire protection services, health, worship, human safety, recreation, roads, sanitation, street lights and water.

Under regularisation, there are three types of undesirable housing: shanties, slums and squatter settlements.

Squatters who reside on reserves need to be relocated and resettled and affected persons must be provided with the option of acquiring government housing.
“Our children must grow up in communities. Every child, every family, should have a roof over his head,” said CH&PA.

Meanwhile, as part of regionalisation, government’s new housing programme will create greater equality (equality of access) across Guyana so that the people living east of the Essequibo will enjoy similar conditions to those living west of the Essequibo.
Also, neither the rural areas nor the hinterland areas will be neglected. In keeping with these pillars, Minister Ferguson said this will be the framework within which every arm of the CH&PA will operate to ensure effectiveness and efficiency.

Immediate focus within the coming weeks will be to work closely with the Guyana Lands and Survey Commission and other entities to secure lands for allocations, restoring public trust in the allocation system and meeting deadlines.

PROPER STEWARDS
“We have been entrusted with public funds and we must be proper stewards of these funds that we have received,” Minister Ferguson stressed.

In an effort to ensure timely delivery of services, the minister noted that meticulous planning is critical, but this must not be done at the perils of inferior work.

“Above that, the public is depending on us to provide them with a quality product and quality product begins with quality decisions. Decisions are made by people; I expect that we will take this into consideration. The public expects nothing short of quality and because we are using public funds, we are accountable to the public,” said Ferguson.

As the new head of the agency, the minister said there will be no room for corruption since it is no secret that government agencies have been plagued by this scourge.

“Corruption hurts families; life is based on trust, we trust our nurses, we have to trust our doctors, we have to trust our aeronautical engineers and it’s no different with us as public servants, people must be able to trust us,” she said.

Meanwhile, as the agency continues to work to serve all Guyanese, equally important is boosting the staff morale and building capacity.

Ferguson said emphasis will be placed on creating an environment for continuous learning, which will ultimately improve the quality of services and level of professionalism.

In addition, during a recent interaction with staff of the agency, the minister assured that her primary concern would be on the quality of services provided as she is in no way concerned about gender, race, religious persuasion, sexual orientation, or their political affiliation.

As the agency moves forward in keeping with its mandate, the minister said she is committed to working with the board members, management and staff and all other sister agencies to create cohesive, empowered and sustainable communities.