hotel and board for 212 people that DO NOT EXIST

According to the report, within the projects carried out under the title “Soccer, a bridge to the community”, total sums of 894,926 lei were improperly settled. The auditors claim that part of the money was paid for services without supporting documents, and in other cases the reality of the benefits could not be demonstrated, notes constantasportnews.

The contracts took place in the period 2023-2024, when the County Council was chaired by Mihai Lupu. Lucian Sorin Cârjă is the president of AJF Constanța, his name being involved in a DNA corruption file.

How AJF Constanța managed to illegally settle 175,000 euros at the County Council

One of the most important issues reported concerns the payment of referees for senior and junior county competitions. The Court of Accounts shows that these costs should have been borne by the participating clubs, according to the AJF regulations, but they were included in the projects financed from the county budget.

The auditors identified money allocated for matches that have not been played, rates billed to both Cj and clubs for the same competitions, but also staggering problems with accommodation, meals and competitions dedicated to juniors.

For example, at actions such as the “Black Sea Cup” or the “Iosif Bukkosy Memorial”, accommodation and meal expenses were found for 212 people who would not even have shown up at the hotel unit!

Payments of 80,000 lei were also reported for the customization of sports equipment, and from the checks carried out, it would appear that the services were not performed in invoiced form. Another 27,000 lei were settled for online promotion, also without documents confirming the conduct of the respective campaigns.

The Court of Accounts asked the Constanța County Council to determine the exact extent of the damage, to recover the illegally paid amounts, including interest and penalties, and to expand the checks on possible double funding and potential conflicts of interest. The deadline for the implementation of the measures is September 30, 2026.

The full point from the audit report, which concerns AJF Constanța

The erroneous inclusion and settlement of some illegal expenses carried out by the Constanța County Football Association (AJF) within the projects with non-refundable funding from the CJC budget carried out in the years 2023 – 2024, “Football – A bridge to the community”as well as without being justified on the basis of the documents provided in the Applicant's Guide approved by the HCJ, being in violation of the legal provisions, with consequences in prejudicing the county budget.

Regarding the projects with non-refundable funding “Football – A bridge to the community” carried out by AJF Constanța in the period 2023 – 2024, it was found that they were included in the interim and final reports, respectively illegally settled expenses in the total amount of 894,926 leirepresented both by unjustified arbitration expenses for which the purpose of the project was not met, and by expenses settled without the existence of supporting documents, provided for by the Applicant's Guide or for which it was not possible to prove the reality of the provision of services, as follows:

a) Expenses with referees for senior County Football Championships organized in Leagues IV, League V and VI, as well as juniors, were erroneously accepted through the budgets of projects with non-refundable funding carried out in the period 2023-2024 and subsequently settled, although the regulations approved at the level of the AJF stipulate the obligation to bear the costs of refereeing within the professional football leagues by the participating/organizing sports clubs/associations of football matches.

In this regard, the audit team found that the amount of 420,173 leiincluded in the projects carried out in the period 2023 – 2024 and requested for settlement by the AJF, related to the arbitration expenses for the games held in the County Championships for seniors – LEAGUES IV, V and VI (2024), as well as for juniors (categories A1, B1, C, D and E) was not justified and did not achieve its purpose for which the non-refundable funding was granted from the county budget, the arbitration fees being charged by the AJF and the sports clubs participating in the competitions at the maximum tariff level approved by the decision of the board of directors.

From the checks carried out during the audit, based on the documents made available by the CJC, AJF and 11 participating sports clubs of public utility, out of the total settled amount of 420,173 lei, the damage to the CJC budget was found as follows:

• on the one hand, with the amount of 64,650 lei, representing arbitration expenses settled on projects in the period 2023 – 2024related to the games that were no longer held, as it results from the situation drawn up and submitted by AJF during the audit;

• on the other hand, with the amount of 101,100 lei, representing expenses with referees settled on projects in the period 2023-2024 and for which the fees were invoiced by the AJF for the same competitions and to the sports clubs, an amount established by the audit team following the scores made with 11 sports clubs.

At the same time, regarding the organization of the actions of the Black Sea Cup and the “Iosif Bukossi Memorial” Championship, in the period 2023 – 2024, the expenses with referees in the total amount of 210,800 lei provided for in the projects with non-refundable financing were not justified, nor the amount of 21,080 lei, representing income tax not withheld and not remitted by the AJF with non-compliance with the provisions of the Applicant's Guide, there is a risk of their not being carried out and thus of an erroneous settlement.

In this sense, during the audit AJF sent a statement of the payment receipts of the arbitrators within the actions organized on the “A bridge to the community” project for the year 2023, as well as the proof of income tax payment related to the arbitration fees of the “A bridge to the community” project carried out in the years 2023 and 2024, in the total amount of 63,410 lei.

b) The inclusion in the two projects carried out by AJF in 2023 and 2024 and the settlement in the Financial Reports (tranche I, II, respectively the final report) of accommodation and meal expenses within the “Iosif Bukossi Memorial Trophy” Action, for which no supporting documents were initially presented by the AJF beneficiary in order to certify the reality of the services billed and provided, respectively the actual number of beneficiaries, as provided in the Guide to the applicant regarding the regime of non-refundable financing from Constanța county funds allocated for non-profit activities of general interest – the SPORT field, approved by HCJ no. 56/28.02.2023 – Annex no. 3, respectively HCJ no. 40/21.02.2024.

Following the presentation of the accommodation charts for the years 2023 and 2024, at the request of the audit team, there were unjustified expenses for accommodation and meal services for a number of 212 people (94 – in 2023, respectively 118 – in 2024), who did not show up at the accommodation unit and were not taken into account, out of the total of 448 stipulated in the concluded contracts, with consequences in damaging the project budget with the total amount of 108,120 lei including VAT (212*510 lei/person/stay), of which:

• accommodation services for the period 2023-2024 of 53,412.82 lei (94,275.23 lei + 118,233.4 lei), respectively 58,219.97 lei with VAT;

• meal, lunch and dinner services, 45,778.68 lei (94*192.66 lei/meal serving/3 days/person + 118 x 234.48 lei/meal serving/3 days/person), respectively 49,898.76 lei with VAT.