2000 and Government will spend $22,000 to ensure the counting is completed by February next year, Senator Milton Scott told Senators yesterday.

Sen. Scott explained that many people did not wish to be enumerated as they were concerned about their rights of privacy.

In the first meeting of Senate since the summer recess, Mr. Scott said 340 households, who had deliberately not co-operated with enumerators, had been issued a warning letter advising them to allow themselves to be counted.

There were also over 2,000 households that were not counted for many other reasons; as an example, Mr. Scott said many people worked several jobs and so were hard to pin down to enumerate.

But he said Government was determined to finish the census accurately and the second Census Amendment Regulations were passed in the Senate with little debate, although there were appeals from Opposition Senators that the enumeration be finished in an expedient manner.

The completion date has now been extended from August 31 to February 28 next year.

Mr. Scott said he thought this would be plenty of time to ensure everyone was counted.

He also said they had a strategy in place to ensure this was the case, including a publicity blitz which would be aired on the radio and 60 of the most experienced enumerators had been rehired to enumerate the remaining households.

Mr. Scott said a total of $22,000 was to be spent on finishing the census, with $12,000 spent on the publicity blitz, and $10,000 spent on overtime.