Institutional strengthening of the Community Services Enhancement Project (CSEP) got a boost last Friday with the granting of a contract to facilitate the transition of the five Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) to secondary township status.
Charity, Supenaam, Parika and Bartica were identified for township status.
The $29M contract was awarded to Trevor Hamilton Associates of Jamaica to conduct an assessment of the preparedness of elements for implementation of township statutes, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported.
The main thrust of the consultancy would be to identify and clarify the roles and responsibilities of the various stakeholders in achieving the shared goal of attaining town status, in addition to providing a comprehensive framework for the transitioning of the four communities and specifying the timing and scheduling of the major activities, including recruitment and training of staff, system adaptation and installation, communications and education.
The assessment would last for four months and would be conducted in Charity/Urasara, and Good Hope/Pomona, in Region Two; Mora/Parika, and Hydronie/Good Hope in Region Three and Bartica in Region Seven.
Inking the contract was Permanent Secretary within the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development Ganga Persaud and Dr. Trevor Hamilton from the company at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre, Kingston.
The infrastructural component of government’s multi-million dollar CSEP is progressing with several projects ongoing in the four earmarked areas, GINA reported.
The US$16.1M project was launched in February 2006 and aims to transform the four areas into secondary towns by improving their basic infrastructure and strengthening their institutions.
According to GINA, several projects under the CSEP are practically completed, including market structures, roads and culverts at Supenaam and Charity.
