The Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday signed a MoU with six agencies for the establishment of 10 “Houses of Justice” in regions Two and Three aimed at improving access to public services.
The memorandum was signed by the ministry and the Guyana Police Force, the General Register Officer, the National Insurance Scheme, the Guyana Power and Light, the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security and the Community Policing Secretariat.
According to a Govern-ment Information Agency (GINA) press release the “Houses of Justice” are multi-agency service centres that will be established in communities to address pressing social needs at that level. The centres will render advisory and other services to residents in order to lessen “the everyday frustration that people face in accessing these basic services.”
Five of these centres will be established in Region Two at Charity, Dartmouth, Suddie, Aurora and Kabakaburi. In Region Three, these facilities will be established at Parika, Zeelugt, Klien/Pouderoyen, Canal Number One and Patentia. They will be open for business once weekly, except for the centre at Kabakaburi which will operate once per month.
Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee said this initiative is the first of its kind established locally and will impact on how community issues are addressed.
“I hope that this will contribute to ease some of the pressure people face on the ground, looking for public service…we are taking the services to the people,” he said.
While he acknowledged that these houses of justice can by no means be a panacea for all the social issues, it is another tool that can be used to address community problems.
