Belarusian sport organizations warned against leeching off state funds

MINSK, 29 January (BelTA) – Sport organizations should not count on being able to leech off the state funds all the time. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko made the statement at the government session held on 29 January to discuss state support measures for sports organizations, BelTA has learned.

“I would not want this session to turn into yet another begging for money for sport organizations, clubs, and sportsmen for the forthcoming year or some forthcoming period. Get it out of your head right away, it won’t happen,” stressed the head of state.

Alexander Lukashenko said that he had reasonable doubts about the fact that sport officials had managed to make sure that all the organizations in the industry had fulfilled the obligations specified by the presidential decree on support for physical training and sports. “Back then we came up with a certain formula to support clubs primarily via encouraging sport organizations to earn money on their own. It was decided to correlate state funding with results of a specific club, a team or a sportsman,” said the President. The work to finance children’s and youth sports and develop the physical infrastructure was determined to be an important area.

In line with the decree local authorities had to control the use of state support in sports. “In addition to controlling they had to take measures to raise revenues from proprietary business operations via assigning relevant goals to sport organizations,” pointed out the head of state.

Nevertheless, not all the provisions of the decree have been fulfilled. “I have preliminary results of a planned audit of nine clubs in team sports and an audit of the decree fulfillment submitted by the State Control Committee. Frankly speaking, the results are not impressive,” remarked the President. “Not all the clubs are now ready for independent work to attract non-budgetary sources of funding. Hence the difficulties with developing the proprietary physical infrastructure and with aiding children’s and youth sports”. The President believes that results cannot be achieved without it. “Sport organizations should not count on being able to leech off the state funds all the time,” said Alexander Lukashenko referring to support for sport organizations.

The President believes that in turn local authorities have failed to secure proper control over the operation of sport organizations. “I am told that it is yet impossible to stop the vicious practice of having no one responsible for outlays,” remarked the head of state. The President also emphasized that the Sports and Tourism Ministry should clearly outline priorities in sport development in Belarus and should control their realization at the local level. “It is necessary to streamline the work in a way to allow those, who demonstrate excellent sport results and good business performance, to be the first ones to enjoy state support,” urged Alexander Lukashenko.

At the session the Belarus President urged the officials, who are responsible for sports development in the country, to present reports on whether the goals that the decree on support for sport organizations outlines had been achieved and what steps were necessary to improve conditions of support in this sphere. The head of state warned that he was not interested in the so-called “average temperature across the hospital”. “I would like and demand a detailed report based on the operation of each and every sport organization. You will not be able to make the overall picture look pretty using only some of the successful and resourceful ones,” he stressed. In his words, taking into account the burden the state budget and Belarusian enterprises bear to support sports, the government cannot turn the blind eye towards the failure of sport officials to fulfill some of their obligations.