National housing backlog first priority for Minister Sharpe-Patterson
Georgetown, GINA,Source January 8, 2016
As she prepares to take office on Monday, Minister within the Ministry of Communities, with responsibility for housing, Valerie Sharpe- Patterson, plans to prioritise clearing the national housing backlog.
This backlog currently hovers beyond 25,000 applications for land titles, transport and even more for house lots. “My first plan is for us to move that process forward and whatever is the challenge, whatever is the difficulty in getting it done, I am telling you that we are going to get it done. Those 25,000 applications that are sitting there, we are going to get them processed, we are going to get those titles, those instruments in the hands of the owners,” Minister Sharpe-Patterson told the Government Information Agency (GINA.)
The new Minister had a brief meeting on Tuesday with the senior personnel from ministry, and advised them that clearing this backlog will be their first agenda. The Minister is of the opinion that in Guyana, where there is so much land, persons should not be made to wait, not even one year, much less 10 to get a house lot. “… it is ridiculous. Yes there might have been problems, but I am saying that this APNU+AFC Government is for progress, is for development and everything that we want to do here, relating to development plays an integral part,” she told GINA.Sharpe-Patterson was appointed Minister within the Ministry of Communities with effect from January 1, 2016, by President David Granger. She replaces, Minister Keith Scott, who has been moved to the Ministry of Social Protection.
The Region 10, Member of Parliament and former Chief Executive Officer of the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN), received the nod for that post because of her strong administrative experience. She told GINA since persons heard about her appointment they have been reaching out to her on the issue of the backlog.
The Minister also spoke to GINA about how she received the news about her appointment. “I got a call from the President and this was just about 6:15 one morning, I was not even out of bed fully. I even mistook his voice for the general secretary of the PNC and I said good morning GS….and he said Valerie Patterson, you were the first person to call me GS, and then I realised who I was speaking to, and then I said good morning Mr. President how are you and then he said to me the reason, he had called.”
She added, “I was wondering if I was still asleep, dreaming or whether I was hearing this for real…”
Going forward, the Minister said that she is excited, not just about the appointment, but with having the opportunity, to serve the people of Guyana, at a higher level. The Minister, who for the longest period has being serving the people at the level of Region 10 said that she is satisfied with her level of service to that region. “I have served well, I have no regrets,” she said. “If you had left it up to me, I would have never moved from Linden,” she jokingly added.
Who is Valerie Adams Sharpe - Patterson?
- She was the former CEO of the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN) -January 2010 to December 31, 2015
- APNU+AFC Region 10 MP, May 2015 to December 31, 2015
- Fund Manager of Linden Enterprise Advancement Fund (LEAF), the credit arm of theLinden Economic Advancement Project ( LEAP), the predecessor of LEN, August 2005 to December 2009
- Frist branch Manager of Courts in Linden, from 1994 to 2005
- Senior supervisor at Guyana National Cooperative Bank where she started as a teller. She earned a scholarship from the bank to study banking and financing at the University of Guyana (UG) and was successful.
- Pupil teacher, at the One-Mile Primary School, 1977 to 1980.
Organisations
- Sharpe-Patterson has served as treasurer for a number of years with the Linden Chamber of Industry, Commerce and Development
- She was also the President of LINFEB,
- A member of several Parent Teachers Association
- Served as a women’s leader in the Assembly of God, in Linden as President, for a number of years and as Treasurer, at the national level.
- In 2008, she was ordained as pastor of the Flourishing Place Ministry in Linden and in 2013 was ordained an apostle.
Politics
- She has been in politics for 25 years.
- She served on the Regional Democratic Council of Region 10 from 2001 to 2011, under the chairmanship of Mortimer Mingo. During that time, she was Chairman of the Regional Women’s Affairs Committee, Regional Welfare Committee, Regional Rights of the Child Committee and a member of the Region Ten Regional Tender Board.
