Electronic single window system to go live mid-2023

A contract to the sum of $202,918,036 was signed on Wednesday with consortium Global Services Inc. The consortium of companies are based in Guyana, North America, and the United Arab Emirates.

Minister of Housing and Water Collin Croal explained that this contract is being signed for the establishment of the platform that will later be monitored and operated by staff of the Ministry.

“There is a whole host of agencies that you have to go to in order to track your application, and you have to do this in person. With each agency, you have to submit different applications with various requirements. This tremendously eases that process of doing business, where you will present your completed application at a single window, and that is what this IT solution will facilitate.”

The Minister said work has already begun to establish this platform which will be operational by the end of June or early July of 2023.

The Single Window Bill has been read in the National Assembly, and will be debated and passed at the next sitting. The bill caters for the establishment of a single-window electronic processing system to increase business efficiency and predictability, as the housing and construction industries are expanding rapidly.

Regulations in the Bill will specify precise deadlines for various agencies to provide responses. A steering committee will also be required under this legislation to centralise duties related to planning for and developing land use, as well as issues related to those activities.

“When we laid the Planning and Development Single Window System Bill, that signalled a government commitment to ensure that we also uplift the way we do business, and change the environment and parameters in which we operate as a government.

“Here, you have an example of what we mean when we reference transparency and accountability. Because throughout the process, at every stage, we have accountability in terms of responding.”