Dear Editor,

It is exactly one year since we submitted plans to construct a modern security and business complex at 203 Light Street, Bourda.

I must admit that City Hall was not as slothful in dealing with the submitted plans and documents as many said they would have been. The delays seem to have commenced with Guyana Water Inc, where the documents were held up for several months.  We got through with the documents after continuous personal intervention by my designated Manager, Mr Harrychand Raghubir, and calls by the undersigned.  To date, water has still not been installed, despite paying for a connection.  GWI seems recalcitrant about connecting, but most equipped to disconnect.

After GWI’s super slothfulness, the plans went back to the city council for several weeks, and were then sent to the Central Housing & Planning Authority after personal calls to the city council and the provision of our transportation.  Someone from Central Housing came and said a few days after that he was there to check the lot out, which we had shown him, but he would not leave and my officers then told me what he was looking for.  Several weeks later a lady came and wanted some information which was provided, and it sat there for several months longer again. Then a few weeks ago someone came and asked if it was a conference hall or a business/office which was to be built.  Why could they not have asked for all the information the first time?  Frustration mounted when I was told they meet only once monthly.

I wonder how a foreign investor or member of the diplomatic corps would feel if they had to go through this.  After the long wait, I now feel like cancelling the idea, and maybe sending the money out of the country, as many prefer to do. But I will not do so; I will invest it right here. However, imagine what this kind of delay does to an investor, with the cost of construction materials spiralling (only in Guyana strangely).

One year for approving a plan to construct is too long, much too long.  The entire system and the entire process need to be revisited, overhauled and action taken by central government.  I am not one to do illegal construction as I was told is happening in the city.  It should never take anyone in this country this long to have a building plan processed.

Yours faithfully,
Roshan Khan