Minister within the Local Government Ministry, Mr. Clinton Collymore said the unit was implemented as an arm of Central Government and will address any queries or inconsistencies regarding the rate fixed on property compared to others.

The life of the panel is five years and could be extended but not for more than an additional five years, as stipulated in the Rating Appeals Act. Only the minister has authority to vary that date.

The panel comprises six members and is chaired by attorney-at-law, Mr. Martin Zephyr.

Other members are other attorney-at-law, Mr. Llewellyn John, representing the Georgetown Mayor and City Council; Mr. Max Pereira of the Private Sector Commission; Mr. Pat Dial of the Consumers Association; Mr. Edward A. Anderson of the Lands and Surveys Commission and Mr. Puran Rampersaud of the Local Government Ministry.

Ms. Reshma Bassant is Secretary/Typist to the panel for which an Office Assistant has also been appointed.

Collymore, at the installation Friday in the ministry's boardroom, explained that when this administration came into power in October 1992, it inherited certain units of state authority. "There were others in the statute books we discovered that did not actually exist", he said.

He said the Rating Appeals Panel that has derived from the authority of the Valuation for Rating Purposes Act. was among some of the units that did not exist.

"While we discovered that the unit was not in existence and we wondered why, in the interim we got a lot of requests from the City Council to have it implemented forthwith", he explained.

Collymore said some research revealed that as far back as 1985 there was such a unit with about 20 persons. He noted that around that time the then President of Guyana, Mr. Forbes Burnham died.

After he was succeeded by Mr. Desmond Hoyte, some changes were made to the panel one year after and it was comprised of fewer people but with the same structure, he said.

However, Collymore said, although that panel was national in scope, with representatives of the 10 administrative regions, it did not function well. The discordance was discovered in the Cabinet records, he reported.

The minister said the installation of the panel came with considerable pressure from the City Council because good reasons were given for it to be established. Subsequently, a memorandum was submitted to Cabinet urging that the panel be set up initially, not with national scope but for the city of Georgetown, he said.

The Rating Appeals Panel would complement the property valuation exercise and municipal institutional strengthening being carried out as one aspect of the Urban Development Programme (UDP).

The UDP is a US$25M Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Government of Guyana funded programme under which major infrastructure work is being done to upgrade the six municipalities.

The valuation of municipal properties has concluded at Anna Regina and is in process in New Amsterdam.

Valuation is to begin soon in Georgetown, officials said.