Bureau of Statistics to be relocated

Chief Statistician Lennox Benjamin on Thursday announced that the Guyana Bureau of Statistics (GBS) will be relocated to the former Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Customs House at Main and Home Streets, Georgetown in the first quarter of 2017, while citing that it is a relief for the agency.

He stated that the agency has been working under pressure and adverse conditions since it became a semi-autonomous body. He stated that once they are relocated, they will be able to function better and expand their work programmes, particularly along the lines of conducting a poverty survey in Guyana.

Benjamin explained that the GRA Customs House was allocated in June 2015 as the permanent building for the Bureau and they were expected to move in by the end of 2016. However, he stated that there were additional works that needed to be completed and so the date was pushed back for 2017.

Head of the Human Resource Department of the agency, Jillian Foster, stated that the building was severely vandalised since it was left empty for two years by the GRA and though the project was put at a cost of $123.5 million, another $47.1 million had to be invested since the building was termite infested and dilapidated.

Nevertheless, she indicated that the building is 98 per cent completed and they are prepared to relocate in the first quarter of 2017.

On March 7, 2014, the then Government had advertised the former Customs House for sale through the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).