The Ministry of Housing and Water yesterday signed a contract with Global Services Inc for the development and implementation of an information technology solution for a single window system that will see the elimination of the lengthy waiting period for the approval of building plans.
The system is expected to come online next June. According to the Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal, the process of doing business in Guyana will see significant enhancements to the benefit of local and foreign investors as a result of the single window system.
The contract was awarded to Global Services Inc., a consortium of companies based in Guyana, North America and the United Arab Emirates through the National Competitive Bidding process. A brief contract signing ceremony was held at the Ministry of Housing and Water at Brickdam yesterday afternoon.
Croal explained that the system will provide one-window access for the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) to act as a single point of entry for planning as well as monitoring the status of individual applications while at the same time allowing applicants to make submissions and track their progress. There will be deadlines and escalations to enable timely processing of applications, and scalability to ensure that the IT solution can accommodate increased application volumes, staff changes, and be configured to accommodate changes to evolving workflows.
He noted that the Bill for the Planning and Development of the Single Window System was tabled at the 52nd Sitting of the National Assembly and should be passed at the next sitting.
In addition, Croal voiced confidence in Global Services’ ability to develop the system, noting that they have experience with similar projects with the Dubai Development Authority, Qatar, Bahrain, Ontario, Canada and Jamaica.
“They bring a unique combination of skills to this Single Window initiative, they understand spatial, as well as the technology dimensions. This is important to us since we are using technology as an enabler to create transparency, accountability and predictability in our land use planning system,” the Minister stated.
Meanwhile, Susan Rodrigues, the minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, said the single window system will also ensure that the approval of applications is transparent and remove all doubts about the rectitude of the process, while noting that the technological advancement is a historic one in the housing sector.
“We are removing all subjectivity from the system. No Guyanese or investor will have to fear that any public official will deny their application because the public official doesn’t like them or any of that,” she said.
She pointed out that a key advantage of the single window system is that it removes the need for investors having to fill out multiple applications for different agencies such as the Guyana Fire Service, Environmental Protection Agency or City Council in order to get a permit for a building as well as ensuring that responses from the relevant agencies are received within a certain time.
Representatives of Global Services said that the system they intend to develop and install will allow for continuous updates so there would be no need to spend additional monies to improve the system should the technology continue to advance.
The cost for the development and implementation of the system is $202.9 million.
