Tourism board members to be named by month-end
Sophia mooted as possible site
By Miranda La Rose
Stabroek News
July 23, 2002
The names of the directors to establish the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) board is to be submitted to Cabinet by month end and the management and staff of the GTA may be in place by mid-September, Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Manzoor Nadir, said.
The GTA may be housed at the National Exhibition Complex, Sophia and not at the site of the former Chess Hall on Main Street as had been previously announced. The European Union funding of 200,000 Euros approved for the rehabilitation of the Chess Hall may be lost to the government if not utilised by month end and Nadir has said he was strongly in favour of some other agency using that money before it was lost.
Responding to questions on the GINA-sponsored television programme 'Answers' last Thursday, Nadir said that President Bharrat Jagdeo assented to the bill, which was previously passed in Parliament, on June 13.
He said that before the physical institution of the GTA, the board had to be constituted. The board will then have the responsibility of advertising vacancies including the post of chief executive officer to administer and manage the affairs of the GTA. "I am looking forward to taking the names of the board to Cabinet before the end of this month. I'm very optimistic that by the end of August, mid-September, we can physically have in place the board and the executive staff to do the work of the authority," he added.
Asked about accommodation for the GTA, Nadir said that the Chess Hall, which had previously been identified to house the GTA may not be used anymore. He said that there were several other options including the possibility of housing it at the exhibition complex at Sophia, in a building adjacent to the Guyana Manufacturing Association office. "So accommodation is not a problem."
Money, too, he said was not a problem for the setting up of the authority and to allow the authority to begin doing its work immediately because $20 million has been allocated in the National Budget this year for the operationalisation of the GTA.
On the issue of the Chess Hall which, on November 27, 1999 at the Main Big Lime President Bharrat Jagdeo had announced would have been renovated with 200,000 Euros made available by the European Union, Nadir said that because of "a host of problems, right now it looks as though I would give up on housing the authority there because we need to utilise that money before the end of the year."
The EU funding for the authority was confirmed at the Fifth Joint Meeting of the Executive Committee of CARIFORUM in Santo Domingo in 1999. Almost three years ago when Jagdeo made the announcement, he had said that rehabilitation works on the Chess Hall would have started shortly. No work had been done and earlier this year the Chess Hall collapsed.
Nadir explained that the promise was that the Chess Hall would have been rehabilitated and renovated for the housing of the GTA within the CARIFORUM budget as part of the preservation of historic sites programme.
He said that the ministry "had all kinds of problems in getting this project off the ground; problems within the government; we've run from one year into the next, we've had a host of problems.
Right now it looks as though I would give up on housing the authority there because we need to utilise that money before the end of the year. And I'm strongly in favour of some other agency using that money before we lose it."