Claims have been made about hundreds of persons being served by the Houses of Justice (HOJ) since they were launched in September 2013, however many people on the West Demerara are not aware of their existence and visits by Stabroek News found very little interest.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had established the HOJ in Regions Two and Three with the aim of addressing social needs in the communities as well as improving access to public services.

Visits to the five centres that have been set up at   the Neighbourhood Demo-cratic Council (NDC) offices at Parika and Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo and at Poude-royen, Canal Number 1 Polder and Patentia, West Bank Demerara, revealed that there was hardly anyone there.

The Home Ministry had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with six agencies: the Guyana Police Force, the General Register Office, the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), Guyana Power and Light Inc, the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security and the Community Policing Secretariat.

The understanding is that between 4 pm and 6 pm on weekdays, officers from these agencies would be at the various centres and persons can go in and highlight their problems so they can be resolved. It was expected too that the centres would render advisory and other services to residents.

When Stabroek News visited the areas where the centres are located, residents said they had never heard of the HOJ.

Some showed no interest in the services while others said they were happy to know that they can have their issues addressed locally. However, many persons could not say where the NDC offices were located.

At the Parika branch, one man who showed up a little late, raised an issue with an officer from the National Insurance Scheme who had been there waiting.

At the Vergenoegen facility, no one was there and the building was tightly shut.

The office at Pouderoyen was open and NDC staff and other nearby workers told this reporter to stick around because “people would come late.”

However, after one hour of waiting no one showed up.

At the Patentia and Canal Polder offices this newspaper was told that officers from the various agencies would normally go and “only if people have problems then they would come in.”

Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee had said this initiative was the first of its kind established locally and will impact on how community issues are addressed.

“I hope that this will contribute to ease some of the pressure people face on the ground, looking for public service…we are taking the services to the people,” he had said.

Acknowledging that the HOJ can by no means be a panacea for all the social issues, he said it was another tool that can be used to address community problems and spoke of plans to expand the service to other regions.