Draft Real Estate Legislation complete

THE Attorney General’s Chambers has completed drafting the Real Estate legislation following aggressive engagement with stakeholders and other key parties.

Anil Nandlall, Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, made the announcement on Tuesday during his weekly televised programme, “Issues in the News.”

“The Real Estate Bill is completed, and I will be circulating it to the stakeholders in a matter of days, and the consultative process will continue. Consultation is an important part of our governance and is an important part of our legislative agen- da,” the AG assured.

Key components of the legislation will include a code of conduct for real estate agents and brokers, the formalisation of the current transaction process with enhancements, and greater protection for buyers, sellers, agents, and brokers.

He said the real estate sector is one that Guyana must regulate through legis- lation under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) law.

Last year, the Attorney-General met with real estate agents on numerous occasions to discuss the enactment of legislation for this sector, which is expanding rapidly due to the massive transformation taking place in Guyana.

“Guyana, as is known, is scheduled to undergo a mutual assessment later this year, and one of the deficiencies identified in our AML/ CFT structure is the absence of legislation governing real estate transactions,” the AG said.

The government continues modernising its legal architecture while developing new legislation to regulate rapidly expanding industries due to Guyana’s economic transformation.

This forms part of the government’s legislative agenda, aiming to revamp many outdated laws and lay the foundation for anticipated economic development.

RECOGNISING that contributors still face challenges when accessing services from the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, said the government is working to ensure they receive better services.

Minister Nandlall underscored that this would be done through drastic changes, allowing contributors to receive their benefits through a simplified process.

On Tuesday’s weekly televised programme ‘Issues in the News,’ the Attorney General pointed out that the administration has acknowledged that matters are still unresolved.

“More changes are going to be made to ensure that persons who qualify for NIS, receive the benefits to which they are entitled under the NIS Act. NIS is a law, and once you comply with that law, then, as far as possible, you ought to benefit in accordance with the law.

“Whatever hurdles, administrative and otherwise, that are preventing that objective from being realised, we are uprooting them as we go along and making the process more accessible to a wider cross-section of Guyanese entitled under the scheme,” the AG noted.

Over the past two years, administrative changes have been made by the government to intensify efforts to clear the backlog of matters that were pending and improve services to contributors.

“For example, many times persons go to the NIS and their documents cannot be found. We have said that once a person has worked in the public sector and that can be established, there is no need for documents. And there are many little rules like that that have been implemented to ensure that persons are not unfairly denied or deprived of their entitlements under the NIS,” he stated.

NIS, which falls under the purview of the Ministry of Finance, has conducted several outreaches over the past two years. Last month, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Singh revealed that NIS has resolved some 6,000 issues through its outreaches countrywide.

In October 2022, Minister Singh made it clear that the government expects to see more improvements in the services offered by the scheme.