He said, at the beginning of the exercise, there were some "minor glitches" but no reports of any serious negative incidents have since been received.

Earlier, there was a case of alleged impersonation in which a householder at Melanie, East Coast Demerara, said the fugitive ‘Inspector Gadget’ pretended to be an enumerator but that could not be confirmed.

Seelochan said the enumerator responsible for that household is a female and, if a male appeared there, it would have been a case of attempted impersonation.

Seelochan attributed the sloth in progress to what he called “the general apprehensive and skeptical atmosphere” created by the existing crime situation in the country and the shorter daylight hours at this time of year.

He said, normally, the count is taken during April/May when daytime is longer in the afternoon.

Seelochan said, too, that enumerators have been asked to do a thorough job and that, perhaps, is a contributory factor to what has been achieved, so far.

He said householders have been generally cooperative and only about one per cent of the people approached have refused to provide the required information.

However, Seelochan reminded that persons are legally bound to give the details and the Bureau would only enforce the law as a last resort.

He said, at this stage, they prefer to use persuasion.

Seelochan said refusal is not something new and past experience has been that people from the urban and more affluent communities show a greater disinclination to cooperate.

He said some districts in Regions Three (West Demerara/Essequibo Islands) and Four (Demerara/Mahaica) have been completed already and the enumerators who worked in them will be deployed to assist in other places.

The process has not begun in Regions One (Barima/Waini) and Eight (Potaro/Siparuni) but training with respect to the two should be done by next week and the enumeration will follow, Seelochan said.

According to him, the delayed start in those Regions is due to logistical difficulties and the “huge sums of money” needed to travel within and out of those parts.

Seelochan said, although the funds are available, the imprest system does not always have the required cash that has to be released by the Ministry of Finance, because of the large amounts that are used.

The counting is proceeding “at a fair pace” in Region 10 (Upper Demerara/ Berbice), except in two communities where training of personnel is not scheduled to finish until the end of next week, Seelochan said.

He said the Bureau is satisfied with the standard of performance in the field but a few minor errors have surfaced on the questionnaires and they are being addressed in a timely manner, as enumerators meet with their respective supervisors twice a week and supervisors have at least monthly meetings with coordinators.

Seelochan appealed to householders, especially those who have refused, to cooperate with the census takers when they visit.

Censuses are usually taken every 10 years and the last here was in 1991 but it was not feasible in 2001 when general elections where held.

Data garnered from a census is very useful to the business community, investors and those agencies that are involved in State planning and formulation of policies, Chief Statistician Lennox Benjamin told the Chronicle.

He said, while a country may have the resources and potential for investment, if the relevant information is not available, investors may look elsewhere.

Mr. Benjamin said businesses need facts pertaining to the density of population and type of activities prevalent in a particular community, whenever they are considering to establish in a particular location.

He said, because of geography, weather pattern and logistics, the enumeration in Region Nine (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo) was completed first and the knowledge gained from there will be used to the benefit in other Regions.

Benjamin said Guyana is part of a regional census system that is coordinated by CARICOM but Suriname and Guyana are the only two member States which have not yet completed their censuses.

He said no one country within the Caribbean region has all the skills necessary to effectively undertake a census.

So there is close collaboration and knowledge gained in one is useful in another sister nations, with personnel from other member States participating in each other’s censuses.

The population and housing census presently under way with house to house enumeration is in accordance with the Statistics Act Chapter 19:02.