The Dominican Republic just forked out a multimillion-dollar expense to build the Santo Domingo Pan American Games facilities in August 2003. The DR is at present in a financial and economic crunch, but Sports Minister Cesar Cedeno yesterday announced the Mejia administration would go ahead with the undertaking of the national sports games to be held in the small town of Monte Plata and adjacent communities, where all facilities and housing for the athletes have needed to be built from scratch. Hoy newspaper reports that Cedeno delivered to the Monte Plata organizers a check for RD$10 million to fund organization work for the games. The check was delivered at the headquarters of the Dominican Olympic Committee in the presence of the DOC president, Luisin Mejia who supports the Monte Plata games. Fidel Mejia said the games were scheduled for July, after having been postponed for a year and a half now, but he expects the sports installations to be completed by August. Hoy newspaper says that the Ministry of Public Works recently disbursed RD$45 million to the engineers so they could get on with the necessary works.