Hundreds turn up at Gov’t outreach

Over five hundred persons on Wednesday turned out at the Square of the Revolution, Georgetown to meet with public officials in an effort to address their many issues.

“We are taking Government to the people,” Head of the Political Department at the Ministry of the Presidency, Frederick McWilfred told the News Room at the event.

The outreach is being held at a time when the Government is preparing for General and Regional Elections.

According to McWilfred, the outreach was first held in 2016 with just the Ministry of the Presidency in Georgetown and six other regions.

“We felt the need to restart this programme after the persistent complaint that the Government is not accessible, Ministers are not responding to people, so we thought we would have this exercise as a kind of a pilot,” McWilfred said.

This year the outreach included Ministers of Finance, Social Protection, Labour, Public Security, Agriculture, Communities, Education and officials from the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC), the Child Care & Protection Agency (CCPA) and others.

The booth which seemed busier was that of the CH&PA as dozens of persons flocked the officials to sort out issues relating to land applications.

One woman, Claire Fraser told the News Room that she applied for a house lot since 2005 and has visited the department a number of times but they could not locate her documents.

“They say keep checking, keep checking, I’m entitled to a low-income …ah did so and then they say they ain’t got no land. I got to be paying rent and moving from place to place so I come today hoping that I going to get a good word,” Fraser said.

George Ferrel, another Georgetown resident said he applied for a house lot in 2009.

“I just come to see if I can get some kind of answer,” he said.

One man, Lloyd Hazel said he visited the outreach to meet with the Guyana Power and Light as his electricity was cut off three years ago and efforts to have it reconnected have proven futile.

The event facilitated the fast-tracking of several procedures relating to NIS and the other agencies.

However, the coordinators did not cater for the elderly and persons with disabilities.

“We are taking notes so we can improve this system,” McWilfred said.