THE Guyana Lands and Survey Commission (GL&SC), which has more 30,000 clients waiting to access available land, is in process of conducting remapping the country, an exercise that has not been done for some 50 years.
According to the Commission’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Trevor Benn, “remapping is important to tell us where the lands are, what lands are occupied and what lands are available, what are the soil types of the land etcetera.”
The exercise, he added, will aid the commission to be in a position to determine and advise at any time, where lands are available, whether it is for housing, agricultural or whatever purposes it might be required.
“So we are about to start that, to help us to make those decisions,” Benn disclosed when he appeared Wednesday night on a radio interview on Mark Benschop’s “Straight Up” programme.
Having been told that a lot of Guyanese now residing overseas are desirous of returning home, but would like to know the process of accessing a plot of land, Benn said there are five processes that they are encouraged to use.
But before expounding on the processes, the CEO revealed that Guyana has not opened up new lands since the 1980s, pointing out that the last set that was opened up was in the Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary Agricultural Development Authority (MMA/ADA) area in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice). “That is the last major opening land development project that we’ve had in Guyana.
“Since then what has been happening is that those areas that have been opening up, previous to MMA, we have essentially been issuing those lots, to the extent that they are all gone, long before this government came in for the most part,” he explained.
What the commission has been doing, to be able to respond to the backlogged request of the more than 30, 000 applicants awaiting lands, they have been trying to repossess those lots which were issued but have not been occupied. This will allow the commission to re-issue the said lots to people who have an urgent need for them.
At the same time, he said the GL&SC is working to open up new areas across the country, noting that in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), the GL&SC has identified some lands to be opened up, and they are working towards doing so as quickly as possible.
“So, we are not waiting on the new lands, we are trying to repossess as we go along, to make sure that we can meet the demands of the thousands of people who have been coming to us, asking for lands,” Benn said.
REPOSSESSION OF LANDS
In response to a query of whether there is a legal process in which lands can be repossessed and whether it is within the commission’s power to do so, Benn said there is a legal process that must be followed.
He pointed out that as a result of the legal process, the State Lands Act, which must be followed, stipulates the process of repossessing land, the time taken by the commission to respond makes the process of the many requests lengthy.
Benn explained that conditions are attached to the lease document that is handed out when a leased land is issued, and includes that the lessor must occupy one tenth of the land within the first year and pay a land rent on an annual basis, among other conditions.
Also, at three year intervals, the commission will conduct a review of the conditions to ensure that people are adhering to the terms and conditions of the lease. He said there are some lessors for instance, who have land but they are not here in Guyana. They are not occupying the land and their rates are not up to date either.
He explained that the commission would then serve the defaulters with a six-month notice. “We give them six months, we have to send them it in writing, we have to give them six months and within that six-month period, they have a chance to come in and say if they have a problem which caused them not to do anything, but that they will occupy the land. It means then they have to be granted another period.
“So it is very tedious to repossess land from people and this is the issue we have in responding to the high demand that we have at the moment,” Benn noted, “there is due process, there must be, the commission cannot just turn up and say they are taking away your land.”
Reminded about his earlier comment on the opening up of lands, Benn was asked whether someone who was qualified 10, 15 or five years ago for land, would automatically get a chance when the new land space becomes available.
The CEO responded, that on a daily basis he would have people either going to see him or would send an email, or a message on WhatsApp or Facebook, indicating the year that they had applied for land and are still waiting and have not heard anything about their application for land.
On this note, he remarked “the truth is our system has not kept pace with the many demands placed on it, and so quite often those people who are waiting, we don’t have all of the information, even though I told you there are 30,000 people waiting. We still get people coming on a daily basis, people showing us evidence that they did start the process, at least to apply, and when we look at the records, many times their names are not in our records.
“So we encourage people who may have applied some time ago, to come in to make sure that your names are in the system and on record, so when the time comes, we will use a process (which is yet to be determined), but we are making sure that those people who are in the system, have a way to be able to access those lands,” he assured.
INSPECTION COST
Questioned further on the possibility that lands in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) will be opened up, Benn said, that is another process that is being currently worked on.
“At the moment because we have not re-mapped the country, it is more of a guessing game, we have put a lot of pressure on the clients coming to Lands and Surveys, to help us to locate the areas.”
We might say to you, if you know of the area or land that you are interested in, you may tell us and we will go out with you, to determine whether the land is owned by the state, or whether the land is available or not,” he added.
Benn recalled that as a young officer at then Lands and Surveys Department, and if someone had gone there to make a query, he could have with certainty told the client, “down to the plot number the street where the land is located that they might be interested in. I could have told you that from the office,” he explained.
But he said these days we have to go in the fields, which has an inspection cost attached of US$150 or GYD$30,000, that is borne by the client, and represents a cost recovery to cover transportation, staff and the administrative work associated with the inspection.
COMPUTERISATION
Touching on the aspect of computerisation, and with the 30,000 plus applicants, how a client would know when his or her land is available, Benn said that when he became head of the commission three years ago, everything was paper-based, there was the absence of even basic computers with only a few available.
Noting that the commission has started the process of installing computers, the CEO said it is his vision that every member of staff must have a computer at their desk, so that a client upon arrival at the commission can, without much delay, be furnished with the information they request.
To this end, he pointed out that over the last three years more than 150 computers have been purchased and installed, adding that the staff strength is over 300, it is a work in progress, however they still have a long way to go.
In addition, the commission has begun the scanning of vital documents including plans to create a database. “We are working now to begin scanning our registers, some of them dating back to 1700s and 1800s, to ensure that we preserve land information.”
He lamented that the commission suffered a period when they transitioned from the Department of Lands and Survey to a Commission, a semi-autonomous body, pointing out that the then new managers did not see the value in many of the records that were there. As a result, large volumes of the historical documents were destroyed by some staffers, Benn said he learnt.
“It is a rebuilding process, we are working with a number of government agencies that have copies of some those documents and through a process of scanning etcetera some of the information is being retrieved. It is a work in progress, had those absent documents been available, it would have made the processing time easier and much shorter.”
