Communities Ministry sees 72% completion of capital projects

DPI, Guyana, Friday, July 13, 2018

The Ministry of Communities has expended 72 percent of its capital projects; an accomplishment that Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan said bodes well for the ministry.

At the end of June 2018, the ministry was able to expend $6.35Billion of its $8.9Billion 2018 budgetary allocation.

Minister Bulkan told the Department Public Information (DPI) in a recent interview, that this is a great accomplishment for his ministry which has supervision for water, housing and communities.

“It may be recalled that in the 2017 mid-year review by the Ministry of Finance, the minister bemoaned the slow rate of implementation of the PSIP [Public Service Implementation Project] and efforts have been made, and I would like to think that they have borne fruit,” Minister Bulkan said.

The PSIP, Minister Bulkan said, puts the ministry on track. He noted that the earlier the funds are expended, the earlier and greater the opportunities will be for economic development.

“It is a desirable to have earlier expenditure, as opposed to having a graph of much of the expenditure taking place in the last quarter, which by definition means that there are deficiencies and unhealthy factors accompanying that.”

According to Minister Bulkan, his ministry is working with the ten Regional Administrations to accelerate their execution and implementation of their works programme.

Of the combined $4.135Billion allocated, the regions have been able to expend 65 percent.

Five regions have had a rate of implementation of at least 70 percent with the East Berbice Corentyne Region topping at 86 percent.

By: Alexis Rodney