Parliament Committee speaks out on drawbacks of Sport Ministry
By Tea Mariamidze
Wednesday, April 29
The Sports and Youth Affairs Committee in Parliament released a statement on April 28, explaining the details of the closed session of the Sports and Youth Affairs Committee held on March 25, 2015, where they disapproved of the activities of the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs and its minister, Levan Kipiani, carried out in 2014.
They also revealed the details of the report, made after the meeting, which was sent to the Prime Minister, asking him to take an appropriate action.
The report consists of ten items in about different directions and contains arguments why the sports minister is not effective in his current post.
According to them, the sport minister should resign.
The main emphasis was the financing of Chess Olympiad by nearly 40 million Gel which is 30% higher than the total budget of the other 40 federations, containing 20 different kinds of sports.
The committee members think that it is unacceptable that from the funds of Chess Federation 30 million is allocated for hosting Chess Olympics, which includes covering the accommodation and flight costs of the delegations of different countries.
“Serious questions emerged regarding the World Cup to be held in 2017 in Georgia,” the committee members state.
Earlier, the Sports Ministry of Georgia has claimed to allocate 1, 530, 000 EUR as the prize money for the World Cup participants, which, according to the Sports Committee, was inappropriate and blames the sports minister for misspending of budgetary funds in favor of certain group of people.
The other items concern unqualified staff in the Ministry, the lack of medical rehabilitation centers for sportsmen, the decline in development of certain sports, old equipment in schools and universities etc.
In response, Kipiani stresses that he is able to handle his job and does not intend to quit his post.
According to him the case implies personal confrontations, not business ones.
“Of course there are many problems within sports in Georgia, and we have the plans to solve them, but I think that personal factors have nothing to do with them,” Kipiani said.
The European Olympic Monitoring Committee also raised questions about the activities of the Sports Ministry.
Its members expressed doubts that the construction of the new Sport Palace and swimming pool for Olympic Games will be completed within the given period.
The director of the construction company “Sport Building Service” Levan Tarkashvili said that 24-hour works are ongoing and the construction will be completed in time.
The XII European Youth Olympic Festival to be held in Tbilisi from July 26-August 1, 2015. Four thousand athletes from 48 countries are scheduled to participate.
