During an outreach yesterday, President Irfaan Ali said that over $5B will be spent in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) before the end of the year and 600 house lots are to be developed in the Charity and Lima Sands areas.
According to a release from the Office of the President (OP), Ali made the disclosures yesterday morning during his Presidential Outreach which was held at the Regional Democratic Council boardroom in Anna Regina.
The list of areas for expenditure was not provided.
The Head of State said that the main aim of his visit was to resolve many of the issues faced by residents which he said are soluble.
The President also announced that a Rapid Response Team will be set up to address the concerns of the residents.
Ali said that plans for the development of the 600 house lots will be completed within weeks while the infrastructural work will begin by mid next year.
The CEO for the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), Sherwyn Greaves, who was also present, further explained that the areas identified for the house lots are Charity and Lima Sands. The addition of the house lots will benefit hundreds of families living in the region.
Meanwhile, OP said that Ali called on Region Two housing officials to immediately address the claims of false receipts issued for the sale of house lots to residents in the region.
Residents brought the issue to the fore yesterday.
According to OP, Regional Housing Clerk, Suean Seewnarayan said that she became aware of the matter when she joined the department in 2018.
She said: “It was basically where the housing officers were allocating lots to persons and were collecting the monies.” The lots in question are located primarily in the Lima Sands area.
These payments, she noted, were not being deposited to the Regional Democra-tic Council (RDC) accounts department.
The Housing Clerk said that prior to yesterday’s Presidential outreach, nothing was done to address this issue.
“Nothing has been done… Officers are still working on this old matter and what’s happening now is issues are being found out by persons questioning their transport.”
Greaves said that after the issue was brought to his attention, he terminated the employment of a regional official.
“What the CH&PA is doing is strengthening our structure from two staff to four (in the region) because we recognise there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed. We will stop it immediately and will have to treat those persons that were duped…they can’t be punished twice. We will have to accept the payments. As far as I know the other staff involved are not working anymore,” Greaves said, according to OP.
Ali during the visit also interceded on behalf of pensioner Irving James. He was able to collect two months back pay of old age pension.
The retiree had found it difficult to collect the money from last year. He met with Ali at the outreach yesterday and used the opportunity to explain his plight. OP said that the President immediately directed his team to solve the problem.
“This uncle did not get his pension for two months, the Ministry sorted it out in two hours,” Ali announced afterwards.
A total of $39,000 was presented to James by Shannielle Hoosein-Outar, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Social Services.
The pensioner was pleased with the outcome and thanked the President for his intervention, which he said was a relief.
“After a run around it’s ok…this is very nice in this crisis.”
The President’s intervention also resulted in the issuance of Certificates of Title to three Region Two land owners, OP said.
Esaun Garraway said that he was given the royal runaround and was unsure when he would have gotten his title.
“I checked the office steady and they kept saying that the title had to come from Town. I feel good today, thanks to the Government.”
Mark Thomas, who had been waiting for four plus years, called the moment “a great sigh of relief”.
He said that he was happy to have received the title from the Head of State and is now focused on building his home.
Pratima Devi Sookdeo was also waiting for some time for her document.
At the start of the exercise, residents were updated on major investments in the pipeline which include the construction of a water treatment plant, additional power generating capacity for the Region, the implementation of a $50 million road programme, the commencement of a $70 million sea defence programme, the sharing of more than 4500 cash grants and the rehabilitation of 50 miles of drainage and irrigation infrastructure.
Agencies represented at the presidential outreach included OP, the Ministry of Housing and Water, the Central Housing and Planning Authority, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Guyana Power and Light, the National Insurance Scheme, the National Drainage and Irrigation Autho-rity, the Ministry of Health, the Guyana Police Force and regional officials.
