Govt reverses ‘Customs House’ sale

Nov 05, 2015 News

-building to house headquarters of Bureau of Statistics

It appears that Government will no longer be selling the Main Street building that once housed Customs House.
According to Government yesterday, the Bureau of Statistics will now be headquartered there.
Yesterday, officials signed a contract for the renovation of the building.

Not for Sale: ‘Customs House’

Chief Statistician, Lennox Benjamin, and Aubrey Changlee, Managing and Technical Director of the contracted firm, Project Design and Construction Incorporated signed the contract at the bureau’s current office on High Street, Kingston.
The contract totals $118.9M. The renovation is expected to be completed within six months and entails alterations and the renovation of the entire Customs House to now facilitate the operations of the bureau.
Benjamin said that this was a provision made by Government to have a permanent headquarter for the country’s central statistical office.
He added that the bureau has been established since 1987, but this is the first time it will have a permanent home.
According to the official, he is confident that the works that are about to commence will be of the highest quality and will be completed in the expected timeline.
Meanwhile, Changlee stated that they will be putting their best foot forward to complete the project, and doing quality work.
Benjamin noted that the Bureau of Statistics will be lending material support in the supervision of the process.
The Bureau is responsible for conducting censuses, collecting, compiling, analysing and publishing socio-economic and other statistical data, coordinating with other government departments in compiling, analysing and publishing statistics derived from administrative records and organising a coordinated scheme of social and economic statistics for Guyana.

Chief Statistician Lennox Benjamin (center), Managing and Technical Director of Project design and Construction Inc, Aubrey Changlee, (to Benjamin’s left) and other senior members of the Bureau of Statistics following the contract signing.

Customs House once housed the headquarters of the Guyana Revenue Authority which has moved to Camp Street.
Last year February, the property was advertised for sale by the state-owned National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), under the previous administration.
There were reports that a buyer was found but there were no official announcements.
Former head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, had made it clear that his Government had no intention of putting it to use for any government purpose.
The announced sale of Customs House had been closely watched.
NICIL’s handling of state assets has been heavily criticised after the controversy over the Sanata Complex deal to Queens Atlantic, and a number of properties on Duke Street, Kingston.
NICIL itself has been under scrutiny for a number of large-scale Government projects including the Marriott Hotel, the Berbice River Bridge and the Amaila Falls hydro project.