ONE hundred and fifty five community grounds across the country will soon be rehabilitated through a grant that was obtained by the Ministry of Culture,Youth and Sport under the 2013 National Budget.
On Friday last, Minister of Sport Dr. Frank Anthony and  Permanent Secretary Mr. Alfred King along with regional officials and Member of Parliament Faizal Jaffarally, met with community representatives of East Berbice/Corentyne to enlighten them about simultaneous projects that will take place to re-develop community

grounds.
“Your presence here is very encouraging and it tells us that we have good partners here that we can now start working with to create a community- based programme,” King said during the meeting at the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) boardroom at Vryman’s Erven, New Amsterdam.
Minister Anthony in his address noted that fixing grounds is just one aspect of development, but  the community representatives need to ensure that the facilities are used appropriately and ensure that the wider society is involved in activities that will have a positive impact on their lives.
“We started out by government allocating $100,000,000 per year and we have been trying to spread it out across all the regions. Over the last two years we have spent $200,000,000 and this year we recognise the importance and demand for work on facilities in communities, we have now been granted $300,000,000.

DISBURSEMENT OF FUNDS
The RDC of Region 6 will be responsible for the disbursement of funds which will aid in proper accountability. Anthony also called on the community representatives to exercise honesty and ensure that monies are spent in the best interest of development.
“If we work in tandem, we can get this thing done properly and once we are able to demonstrate that we have a good thing going, partnerships between the ministry, RDC and community will see a lot of people looking at this model so that we can do other things,” he declared.
The RDC will disburse money to each community based on the amount of work done within a given period. All rehabilitation projects are expected to commence within two weeks.