THE Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA) of the Housing and Water Ministry, on Wednesday, signed a $202.9 million contract with a consortium of companies which bring ease to the construction permit process facilitated by the agency with the aim of improving transparency and efficiency.
Today’s signing follows a request for expressions of interest for the project which was published in July. That contract signed today paves the way for CHPA, among other things, to act as a single point-of-entry for planning and development applications which will allow staff to monitor those applications, track them, and generate reports on application progress.
Speaking at the signing ceremony at the agency’s Brickdam office, Minister in the Ministry of Housing Susan Rodrigues said a Bill enabling the window was already tabled in the National Assembly and will be debated and passed. She plugged the project as encouraging ease of doing business in Guyana by reducing bureaucracy.
Minister Rodrigues outlined the previously laborious process where applicants would have to engage the city or neighbourhood administration, the fire department, sea defense etc, and plugged that the new system, which will first operate as a hybrid of the old and new system, will eventually give way to the full virtual single-window. Minister Rodrigues said an added feature is that if an application has been delayed for too long at any agency without response, the approval will be deemed to have been granted.
Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal said the consortium brings technological and user interface experience to the information technology solution for the agency. The current consortium, he said, will have the capacity to make changes to the system while the overall digital platform is already in operation. He said this allows for new features to be implemented which gradually result in a fully automated application process including digital payments.
Applicants who have made applications can track their application through the digital window from anywhere once they have access to the internet.
