THE National Sport Commission (NSC), in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MoE), Department of Sport (DoS), is aiming to have its Community Development Fund Project rolled out in a four-year programme, according to Director of Sport Christopher Jones.

Briefing the media yesterday morning, Jones stated that they are intent on revamping some of the initiatives used previously with the process expected to involve the grassroots people in the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils and Village Councils.

The provision according to Jones will remain the same at $300M annually, but there will be changes to the amount one project can access, as those offered in the past were not sufficient to complete and maintain projects.

“$10M is about the minimum that we can spend if we want to achieve the truly multipurpose space which caters for several different disciplines and of course priority is on lights at every one of the locations,” Jones said.

Jones already has a plan moving into this year, saying, “My first proposal (to the Ministry of Education/Department of Sport) for 2016 is for 22 NDCs which will speak to (on average) $220M and of course you still have to cater to those communities that do not reside within a municipality or the NDC, for example, the Amerindian communities and of course you still have to cater for school grounds.”

He noted that there is still $80M unused funds yearly which will go towards developing school grounds as well as those in the hinterland locations.

The Director said that in order for funds to be accessed, they must have a community committee that is responsible for the development of the ground and to do a needs assessment followed by a document indicating the cost of the project and the particulars.

Those documents should be submitted to the MoE DoS and copied to the NSC.

Thus far, Jones acknowledged that he is in receipt of 10 proposals which missed the 2015 deadline.

By Stephan Sookram