September 23 2011 -- The twenty-six District Administrators of the Community Development Department met with President James Michel at State House today to share their views and experiences in the management of district affairs. The Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sport, Vincent Meriton and high ranking officials of the ministry also attended the meeting.

President Michel said that the District Administration Offices needed to have  a stronger partnership between stakeholders within government as well as the private sectors to ensure better service delivery to the residents of the communities and that they needed to take greater responsibility to meet the public demands for efficient and reliable services.

"We are empowering the Districts to take decisions more efficiently and to deliver a better service for the community. District Administrators are aware of the needs of their community and need to identify the most innovative and least time-consuming ways to implement their projects, process individual cases as well as coordinate with other national agencies, such as Department of Environment, the Police and NDEA, when issues of concern arise, " said President Michel.

The District Administrators spoke to the President about their concerns and gave their suggestions on how district services could be improved. They expressed their concerns on the main challenge for their communities, the social ills, in particular drug abuse.

" The Districts need to coordinate their efforts with the Social Renaissance Committee to identify problem areas, and seek immediate solutions for them. Social ills can seem like wide and overwhelming problems, but if we tackle them area by area, we will eventually win this battle against drugs and the related ills."

The meeting took place in line with President Michel's policy  and ongoing exercise to reach out to  the communities.

Editor's Note

-         There are now 26 districts as Perseverance is the latest addition.