Home News Electronic Single Window System:13 applications approved, over 300 being processed – Min...
– major oil & gas projects among applicants
Less than a year since becoming operational, the Electronic Planning and Development Single Window System has already approved over a dozen applications while more than 300 applications are currently being processed including several for major oil and gas projects.
The Housing Ministry’s Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) launched the Electronic Planning and Development Single Window System in June 2024 with the aim of consolidating the various applications needed for the construction permitting process and having them approved through one portal.
“To date, we have over 346 active applicants who have registered on the Single Window System. Of this total, about 132 of them have not made their payments so obviously their application process could not move… In terms of approval, at the Board level through the Electronic Single Window, we have approved over 13 applications,” subject Minister Collin Croal disclosed on Friday.
In 2024 alone, he added, approximately 872 applications were received through this single window portal and a total of 892 applications were processed – the excess being rolled over applications from the previous year.
Of these, he added, “…14 relates to major investments in the oil and gas sector.”
According to the Housing Minister, the electronic single window system has been transformational in easing the process of setting up businesses in Guyana.
“It takes away, obviously, the archaic system of one going through the hassle in terms of [dealing with several different] local authorities. You can be anywhere and file that. I know someone overseas who’s been following up over the last two years on their approval. But you can be anywhere in the world and have your approval done,” he stated.
However, Croal disclosed that this programme is not without hiccups as they have encountered issues with local authorities including the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC). However, he noted that these are being addressed.
“Through the Planning Department, they’ve had a number of engagements and so now, they have identified a [representative] and I think it’s moving now or should be moving. But we did not have the support of the municipality. In fact, when persons were turning up to [get] their plans etc., they were being sent to CH&PA. But the local authority still has their responsibility of ensure the plans are approved,” the minister posited.
Another issue that affects the efficacy of the single window portal is the timeless response from the various partner agencies that need to do their part in processing applications. The Minister said efforts will be placed on fixing this.
“We will be moving, in this year, to ensure that agencies that have a time-bound responsibility – which is one of the tenants of the single window… to have timely responses from these agencies. Because many times when persons complain that they’re waiting [for] many months on CH&PA, yes… but CH&PA’s approval has to have, based on the application, the involvement of other agencies,” Minister Croal noted.
The platform, which was introduced less than a year after the Planning and Development Single Window System Act was passed in the National Assembly in July 2023, allows applicants to submit their documents at several state agencies at a single portal and track the progress of their applications as they undergo approval.
At the launch of the electronic Planning and Development Single Window System in June 2024, President Dr Irfaan Ali said, this new portal will remove the bureaucracy and red tape in the current fragmented planning and approvals process.
He had disclosed that this project has been in the works since 2013 and got fast-tracked when the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) returned to office in 2020 and found that over US$50 million in private sector investments were being stalled due to the lengthy processing time for permits – as much as three years.
According to the Head of State, the introduction of this single window system will not only reduce the red-tape but also identify which agencies and individuals are the ones lagging in processing these building permits.
“We will have agencies that are not pulling their weight and then the entire system faces the burden of the inefficiency. In this approach now, there is a time set and if you don’t submit your comment, it is taken as approval… silence is taken as approval. And then you will be held accountable as to why you did not submit your approval. That’s an important part of the system; it’s time-sensitive. So, no one can hold your application on their desk anymore and believe they have all of God’s life to approve it,” President Ali had related.
Currently, the processing of all construction permits from the various state agencies takes about three months. This time has now been massively reduced to one month with the newly launched Single Window System. (G-8)
