Mystery surrounds incomplete $30M Aranaputa sports facility

UPPER TAKUTU/UPPER ESSEQUIBO residents demand the Local Government Ministry
unravel the mystery surrounding the $30M sports facility promised Aranaputa left holding only a
fenced property with a sanitary block.
Speaking exclusively with www.aroundtheregions.com, Region Nine Vice Chairman Mr. Bertie
Xavier revealed the enigma of the sport facility was one of several burning issues residents
raised with Local Government and Regional Development Minister Nigel Dharmalall when he
visited the interior community recently.
The residents were quite vocal in their complaints to the Minister and his team, which also
included the Regional Chairman and other senior Regional Development Council (RDC)
members.

The absence of the sport facility is a huge impediment, Minister Dharamlall heard from the
sports and athletic-loving community.
“The residents appealed to us to have more sporting activities brought to their village as they
would like to see more advancement in terms of sporting development. This is something that we
intend to seriously address,” Xavier said.
He said the building project commenced in 2019 but so far only the fence and a sanitary block
was done.
“We learnt that a sports facility was (being) built in 2019 but it’s incomplete as several features
that were supposed to be a part of the facility are missing. As a matter of fact, all that the
contractor did was fencing of the ground and the establishment of a sanitary block, but no other
work,” he complained.
“Looking at the original proposal you would recognise that several things are missing because
there are no lights. This forms part of the many missing features that should have been included

in the facility. The residents are right in wanting to know how this $30 million was spent and we
intend to ensure that answers are provided as you just can’t collect $30 million and in return give
villagers this as a sporting facility,” he argued.
The Regional Vice Chairman said that Minister Dharmalall heeded the residents call for a full
investigation into the conundrum which he hopes will be done shortly to provide residents with
the required information on how the money was spent.
"I am hoping that the auditors will (investigate how) the monies that were spent,” Xavier said.