Slippage in completing Census 2002
-says Chief Statistician
By Andre Haynes
Stabroek News
December 27, 2002
Work on the 2002 Census, originally scheduled to finish in late October, will go into next year as enumeration in Regions 1 and 7 has been postponed until after the holidays.
Enumerators conducting the National Population and Household Census 2002 have to date covered approximately 93% of Guyana's population with the exception of those two hinterland regions where the exercise was scheduled to begin two weeks ago.
Chief Statistician Lennox Benjamin said the Bureau, acting on the advice of residents, would begin the enumeration in these areas at the beginning of January and expect to finish it in three weeks. He said residents, primarily of Region 1, advised against commencing the exercise because of the customary movement of the population during the Christmas season. The population in these regions makes up an estimated 3% of the total population. A core team for the Bureau is expected to conduct the exercise.
Meanwhile, in addition to tracking those households which are yet to be enumerated, the National Bureau of Statistics is working towards completing the payment of enumerators.
Benjamin told Stabroek News that although targets were set for the completion of the field exercise, there had been some "slippage" in the return of the questionnaires and some of those returned were not complete. Benjamin said the staff of the Bureau has been working around the clock - even through the weekends - on preliminary checks of the questionnaires.
He said the focus now is to complete the pay sheets and get them to the Ministry of Finance so enumerators could be paid by the end of this month.
He added that enumerators would be paid once they have submitted all completed questionnaires and upon the completion of a set of minimal checks for correctness and consistency. He said if it was found that questionnaires were incomplete or inconsistent with the summary submissions, the Bureau would return the questionnaires to the area supervisor for rectification.
He further observed that one development in the exercise which should be appreciated is the slippage in the initial time frame for the completion of the enumeration exercise set between September 16 and the end of October.
He also explained that enumerators were employed on a contract with a retainer fee plus $50 per completed questionnaire. They were each assigned a district with a number of households to be completed in a specific time period.
He said since targets have not been met, the Bureau has put pressure on area co-ordinators and supervisors to determine the reason for the delays and to hurry the process along.
The Census is being funded at a cost of $130M from the Central Government in addition to overseas funding.
Benjamin estimated that enumerator training and salaries accounted for between $94M-$96M of this amount. "This is why we are ensuring we get quality for the money we are spending," he noted.
Benjamin also noted that while some persons were concerned about the rush to complete the census this would not be done at the cost of disregarding persons who are still reporting that they have yet to see enumerators or that return visits were not made.
In addition to payment of enumerators, he said, the Bureau is also now concentrating on tracking down those households which have yet to be enumerated.
A final notice would be issued shortly in the media, he said, directing households or individuals who have not been enumerated to call the Bureau or even come into the Bureau as a last option to complete their enumeration.
