Sports Minister Abdulla Rafiu says employees at fitness and recreation centres in the islands will take on expanded responsibilities for maintaining and repairing sports facilities.

Speaking at the “Ahaa” forum, where Ministers answer public questions, Minister Rafiu said some sports facilities in the islands were not under the ministry’s jurisdiction, leaving some facilities without regular maintenance and allowing them to deteriorate.

He said the lack of maintenance had shortened the lifespan of sports equipment and resulted in the need to replace it altogether.

Minister Rafiu said sports facilities should be managed by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, similar to how schools, health centres and hospitals are managed by the relevant ministries.

The ministry issued a circular in early 2024 seeking to bring sports facilities under the control of island councils under the ministry. The circular also called for sports facilities built by benefactors in the islands to be brought under the ministry’s control.

“I think these centres should be under the Youth and Sports Ministry to fulfil our mandate properly,” Minister Rafiu said.

He said placing the facilities under the ministry would allow them to be maintained over the long term and reduce the cost of major repairs.

“To permanently maintain these places [sports facilities] and maintain them for a long time without spending a lot of money on repairs, we need to have them under our control. Otherwise, we have to spend a lot of money to repair them,” he said.

As part of the plan, the ministry will establish staffing arrangements at fitness and recreation centres in the islands, including maintenance and administrative staff and employees responsible for running programmes.

“To do that, we have works being set up in every island — fitness and recreation centres. This is where our staff is going to work. There will be repair people at work, administrative staff and people running various programmes,” Minister Rafiu said.

He said employees would be responsible for regularly checking sports facilities, fitness equipment and gyms and carrying out repairs when necessary.

“We will be doing daily monitoring and regularly maintaining our outdoor gyms and fields. And we will be able to do maintenance work continuously. This is the best solution,” he said.

Minister Rafiu said each centre could be allocated a maintenance budget to cover the cost of ongoing repairs.

He also said artificial turf at sports fields in the islands could last for many years if it was maintained regularly.