Dear Editor,
I read with interest an article carried in your Wednesday, December 4, 2024, edition of the Stabroek News that the Ministry of Housing and Water, department of Central Housing and Planning Authority where ‘seven small business operators were provided financial compensation, totaling $676,000.00, through the ‘Adequate Housing and Urban Accessibility Programme (AHAUP).’
Editor, my focus will not be on the recipients, since I am happy that they benefitted from the resources made possible through the programme; successfully negotiated by Former Minister of Finance, Mr. Winston D. Jordan. It is imperative that I remind your readers that this programme is not an initiative of the PPP/C Government, but one like many other programmes, they inherited from the Coalition Government. The nature of the PPP/C is not to be fair, honest, and transparent, but a political party which in every regard will seek to obfuscate the truth, to make themselves look good and the Coalition Government be put in a negative position; as they continuously do with their now out of tuned lyrics, ‘Coalition Government did nothing!’ Well, I am duty bound to bring the facts and briefly share how this programme was conceptualized during the tenure of the Coalition Government. PPP/C must not be allowed to take credit for other people’s work. Time for plagraism is over!
Financing of the programme was done by the Inter-American Development Bank through the reformulation of the expansion and integration of the Basic Nutrition Programme. The budget for the porogramme was approved for US$34.5M, with a duration from 2017 to 2022, and with a focused objective; to improve the quality of life in urban and peri-urban Georgetown through better access to adequate housing and basic infrastructure for low-income populations, and through improved accessibility and mobility services. Prior to the change in administration on August 2, 2020; the Coalition Government, through the Ministry of Communities, department of Housing and Water, the following activities were in progress and executed: application process completed (November 1, 2018, to February 1, 2019); beneficiary selection process in progress for Sophia; infrastructural works in Sophia completed; this included rehabilitation of the “C” Field playground, roads, drains and culverts, and verification exercises commenced in La Parfaite for subsidies and core homes.
Approximately two (2) years ago, I highlighted the discrimination and disadvantages faced by persons who were approved as beneficiaries during the assessment and evaluation conducted by the Unit of Central Housing and Planning Authority under the Coalition Government. Many persons engaged me and sadly stated that since the PPP/C came to office, they have not received feedback from the Ministry. The PPP/C, in some aspects, revised the programme to ensure that persons in their perceived stronghold areas benefitted from the programme, while hundreds were disenfranchised. Editor, I conclude by reminding the PPP/C regime, that I will not allow them to continuously get away with their mendacious traits, without “fact checking” and will represent the work of the Coalition Government, since they are narratives to share, which will aid in exposing the PPP/C for who they are, untrustworthy, inept, visionless and full of dishonesty.
Sincerely,
Annette Ferguson, MP
