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Ease of doing business… Processing of construction permits should be done by a single entity
Processing a permit to construct a building for businesses is a long and onerous process. So says Deodat Indar, former Private Sector Commission (PSC) Vice Chair and former Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) President.
Former PSC Vice Chair and Former GCCI President, Deodat Indar
He opines that if a single central unit is created for processing applications for those permits, it would make the matter less tedious for businesses that want to operate across Guyana.
In an interview with Kaieteur News, yesterday, the businessman explained that processing the permit could take awfully long periods before approval is granted. In certain cases, it may take six to nine months, or even more than a year.
This is due to the fact that approval is needed from several agencies before the final permit is granted, and that depends on the nature of the project intended for construction.
The Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) is the body that receives applications. Under the Town and Country Planning Act Chapter 20:02, the body is tasked with the responsibility of promoting and facilitating orderly and sustainable development within the country.
But it alone does not have the capacity to properly examine the implications of certain constructions. Different projects require assessments by different organisations. For instance, when Nalco Champions intended to build a chemical warehouse in Houston, it could not do that without the approval of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
That Agency is, for a variety of matters, required to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Due to certain statutory timelines involved within that process, getting approval from the EPA could typically take about nine months.
While Indar understands the importance of such timelines, he said that it would be better if efforts are made to tighten them, by revisiting certain services. That’s just one agency. There are others.
For example, every building would have to go through the assessment of the Guyana Fire Service to ensure measures are in place to protect the safety of persons who will traverse it.
Once the building is intended to be permitted in the jurisdiction of one of the towns, it would have to go through the Town Council. In the City’s case, that body would be the Georgetown Mayor and City Council.
The list goes on.
In Indar’s assessment, this difficulty in expediently processing a construction permit is one of the major issues plaguing the business environment. Guyana has been ranked consistently low for several years in that regard, by the World Bank’s Doing Business report.
In the recently released report of the World Bank, Guyana is ranked at 134 of 190. For ease of getting construction permits, Guyana scores 52.5/100, placing it at rank 167/190.
Time and the procedures of the process are listed as two factors of this indicator that need refining. Furthermore, World Bank’s building quality control index, which assesses the quality of building regulations, quality control before, during, and after construction, liability and insurance regimes, and professional certifications indices, finds Guyana ranking poorly.
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