500,000 euros improperly awarded to the Rowing Federation! The exact amount collected by Elisabeta Lipă

In October 2024, Gazeta Sporturilor published the prize grid proposed by the Romanian Rowing Federation (FRC) for the forum's employees and athletes, as a result of the results recorded at the 2024 Olympic Games. Rowing brought 5 of Romania's 9 medals at the competition in Paris.

In that table, which Elisabeta Lipă claimed was only “a simulation”, 324,800 euros would have gone to the chief accountant and the general secretary. In the end, the chief accountant, Roxana Petrescu, was left with 86,000 euros, and general secretary Cătălin Erhan got 100,000 euros.

At that time, the case gained momentum after the statements of Eduard Novak, former Minister of Sports. “We are talking about a world star, David Popovici, again the general secretary of a federation, a nobody, gets more than David Popovici?!”, said Novak in dialogue with GSP.

The Court of Accounts established: 500,000 euros improperly granted to the Rowing Federation in the period 2021-2024

The Prime Minister of Romania at the time, Marcel Ciolacu, claimed that he called Elisabeta Lipă to the report. Lipă was the president of ANS, the agency that replaced the Ministry of Sports, and the figure who retained the greatest influence within the Rowing Federation.

There were no follow-ups for Elisabeta Lipă, but she also entered on the wire The Court of Accounts, which sent its inspectors at COSR (Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee), ANS and Rowing Federations, respectively Kempo. The proposals for awards following the Olympic Games and related documents were verified. Today, December 9, golazo.ro published the conclusions of the Court of Accounts report.

According to the resolution in the report, “in the years 2021 and 2024, the staff of FR Canotaj did not have established duties that would justify the contribution to the achievement of sports performances, nor criteria that were the basis of the proposed prizes in the total amount of 2,447,484 lei, the equivalent of 492,800 euros”.

90,000 went to Elisabeta Lipă

After the 2021 Olympic Games, the representatives of the Rowing Federation were rewarded with 17,103,747 lei. Of this total, “the amount of 831,432 lei (168,000 euros) was awarded to the staff, respectively: 443,430 lei (89,600 euros) to the president and 388,002 lei (74,400 euros) to the chief accountant“. At that time, the president of the Federation was Elisabeta Lipă. In other words, the current PSD deputy benefited from that bonus without a legal basis.

Three years later, after the Paris edition, the amount awarded to staff within the Rowing Federation was doubled1,616,052 lei, i.e. 324,800 euros.

The report states that that money went to employees such as “sports consultant/expert, sports complex director, accountant, clerk, janitor, worker, security guard, cook, waiter, fireman, etc.” With the exception of the chief accountant (who received 86,800 euros) and the consultant (100,000 euros), the individual premiums were between 200 and 10,000 euros.

But why aren't all these prizes legal?

In the report of the Court of Accounts, it clarifies that “staff from the federation were not included in the Olympic technical collectives, did not have established attributions that would justify the contribution to the achievement of sports performances, nor criteria that were the basis of the proposed awardsnot being ensured good financial management in the employment and use of public funds received from the state budget”.

The Court of Accounts demands “the restitution of the sums improperly granted to ANS”

The final recommendation of the Court of Accounts is to “clarify the situation by the COSR together with the FRC, establishing the extent of the damage, ordering the necessary measures for the recovery of the sums improperly granted and their restitution to the National Sports Agency“!

Moreover, in order to avoid this kind of situation in the future, the establishment of “the criteria that will be the basis of the proposals for the awarding of prizes for the personnel that will contribute to the performance of the athletes”.

According to the law, the Court of Accounts must notify ANAF and the Public Prosecutor's Office about reported irregularities.

492,800 eurosit is the total amount granted to the staff, with no legal framework in this regard

Elisabeta Lipă opposed the amendment of the Sports Law: “Let civil servants be awarded, not just athletes”

At the end of October, several USR initiatives to supplement the Sports Law were approved by the Senate, to be voted on in the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies.

There was initially a consensus among the parties in the governing coalition, but PSD, PNL and AUR later opposed the new amendments. One provided exactly the situation described above, that the officials of the sports federations would no longer be awarded for the athletes' performances.

According to GSP.ro sources, Elisabeta Lipă stated in a meeting that she does not agree: “At least once every 4 years, officials from sports federations also deserve to be awarded for the athletes' results“.