A waste of public money: nearly 300 went to sports event

The House ethics committee on Wednesday was examining potential squandering of public money in relation to the large delegation sent to Malta by the Olympic Committee (KOE) for the Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE).

The meeting was called by committee chair Demetris Demetriou to examine any issues and prospects for strengthening KOE’s role.

Deputies expressed their displeasure at the absence of KOE president Giorgos Chrysostomou, who had the previous day asked for the meeting to be postponed by a week so he could attend.

Auditor general Odysseas Michaelides said that KOE is not audited by his office due to the legislative framework it falls into.

The audit service only checks whether state funds have been used for the reason they were given, and whether they were used correctly, he said, adding that it has recently received complaints regarding Cyprus’ participation in the GSSE in May, as the total cost of the Cypriot mission was much bigger than for previous events.

Specifically, he said that in addition to the 187 athletes, another 100 people also travelled, including a large number of media representatives, with all expenses paid using funds provided by the foreign ministry.

An additional complaint was that the KOE president stayed in a more expensive hotel than the accredited members of the mission.

The complaint was forwarded to the foreign ministry in August, with head accountant Marianna Aspri telling the committee that the ministry asked KOE for an explanation in a letter sent in late August, and then again in a follow-up in September, to which KOE only responded on Tuesday afternoon.

Aspri noted that the ministry subsidises KOE with €1 million per year, which is 38 per cent of the latter’s total budget of €2.6 million.

She added that that until now only €420,000 has been given for 2023, as they await evidence of good governance and because balances are presented in the KOE’s bank accounts.

In KOE’s response, submitted to the committee by the education ministry at the MPs’ request, it emerged that those who travelled to Malta with all expenses paid were KOE’s legal advisor and his wife, 19 media representatives, seven of whom had their food and board covered by CyBC, representatives of the sponsors Opap and Deloitte, as well as a large number of coaches and assistants.

The vice-president of the sports ethics committee Efthymios Efthymiou said that it has conducted an investigation on KOE, and will publish the findings on Friday. He also noted that issues of intransigence and corruption were examined in 2023.

KOE general secretary Andreas Georgiou, and committee members Andreas Theophylaktou and Dimitris Leontis were the ones who reported Chrysostomou to the sports ethics committee, speaking of bad governance practices, non-observance of good practices, failure to inform the members of the executive council for decision-making, and bullying.

From Georgiou, the committee heard that he was unhappy with the way KOE is being managed.

He claimed he was not aware about the exchange of letters with the foreign ministry, and expressed his surprise about a meeting held between the foreign minister and the president, vice-president and treasurer of KOE, noting that he was not informed of neither the meeting nor its content.

He noted that one of the biggest problems of recent years is the recording of minutes, as Chrysostomou stopped taking minutes when he took over as president of KOE.

“He records what he wants,” Georgiou said, referring to incorrect minutes and the non-recording of the views of the dissenters, while noting that nobody takes minutes during meetings of the executive council.

Saying that Chrysostomou’s behavior is “an insult to the Olympic movement” he noted that it is a constant practice of his not to answer letters and questions, but “to make up narratives that insult [his interlocutors’] the dignity and professional status” of the other.

He added that he himself was “singled out” during a meeting when he attempted to address the GSSE issue.

With reference to suspicions of misappropriation of money, he said that the information about the large delegation was limited and incomplete, and there was no information about which sports would be represented.

He also noted that for a sponsorship of €200,000 from Opap, which provided for the financing of actions to support and promote the athletes, the actions should be jointly decided by the boards of directors of the two organisations.

In this case, he said, there was never a question of approving such actions, and went on to question where that money went.

For his part, Theophylaktou said that he himself personally contacted Chrysostomou, asking him why so many people would be participating, but “did not get an answer”.

“There were people that, as a mission leader, I had never heard about,” he said, noting that executive council sessions are scheduled without asking members about their availability, the result being that decisions are often made without their knowledge.

In turn, Leontis said that this is the first time he has experienced what has been happening to KOE for the past three years.

“I accept constant war,” he said, noting that he has never been asked to represent Cyprus in a single event in Cyprus or abroad and characterising the attitude towards him as “bordering on bullying”.

Deputies assured that the discussion will continue, next time in the presence of the KOE president, the education minister, and the audit house controlling KOE’s accounts.

After what was heard, the committee also asked the interior ministry to review the allocation of the pending funds for the year, stressing that the athletes should not be victimised, because of the “inaccuracies of the KOE administration”.