So with all those well wishes and endorsements, Corozal North's Hugo Patt can get to work. The Natural Resource Ministry is a powerful but very difficult ministry to manage - and Patt becomes the 4th minister in less than three years since the last general election. Today when we spoke to Patt he said he is approaching the task with a positive and open mind. Patt also addressed all the issues and setbacks at the Lands Department which is the lynchpin in the Ministry of Natural Resources:
Hon. Hugo Patt, Minister of Natural Resources
"I welcome this. As you indicated it's a big ministry. It's a huge challenge and as I indicated it is not like we will be starting from scratch. It's not like we will be starting from zero. A lot of work has been put into the ministry in terms of reforms, in terms of restructuring. So that we have a part that we need to streamline. We have a roadmap that all we need to do in my opinion is tweak and fine tune in order to get the processes in place and for the people to get a timely service."
"In terms of the applications, to me this should be a simple process. Whenever any person goes into the ministry, he or she wants to apply for a piece of parcel, my opinion is there is an application, there is an inspection made. Eventually it goes into the system. The system is much automated. So that we have a track of where the application actually goes."
Reporter
"We understand that there is a backlog of land applications. Many people we hear them complaining that they've been waiting years and years for their land title or for basic documentation that they need."
Hon. Hugo Patt, Minister of Natural Resources
"In deed and in doing so I want to stress that we need to be mindful that there have been cases where more than one person gets some sort of documentation from the lands department that they own a particular piece of land and so in making sure that we expedite, we want to ensure that that type of safeguard is there as well."
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