The Public Control Commission within the President’s Civil Society Council says that over the last two weeks it received numerous complaints from athletes and sports federation chairmen. They accused MP Nicolae Juravschi, president of the National Olympic Committee (NOC), of money laundering, corruption and stealing the money meant for athletes.
Commission head Fiodor Ghelici told a press conference at IPN that a commission would be assembled to investigate NOC’s activities.
According to him, athletes are complaining that the NOC is withholding every month a part of the stipend allotted to Olympic candidates. According to the rules of the International Olympic Committee, athletes who participate in the Olympics must receive a monthly stipend of 1500 dollars, starting 15 months before the Olympics. The Public Control Commission received complaints that the NOC is withholding 500 dollars every month.
“We were summoned to the NOC, where we signed a contract saying that we will be payed 1500 dollars to prepare for the Olympics. We were told that 1000 dollars will be given to us for training, while 500 would be withheld by the NOC for our vitamins, equipment and other things we would need. But we didn’t receive anything”, said Alexandra Camenscic, who participated in the Olympic biathlon and cross-country skiing tournaments.
Petru Bria, chairman of the Biathlon Federations, added that there are less than five months left until the Olympic Games, but the NOC is yet to allot the money for the athletes’ training. The Federation is paying for the training camps from its own funds.
Taekwondo Federation deputy chairman Valentin Conev said the NOC decided not to finance the athletes’ preparations for the Olympics, but also to stop the activity of the Taekwondo Federation for an unlimited period.
Fiodor Ghelici also presented an audit report, showing that Nicolae Juravschi and his family received money from the NOC for personal expenses. Ghelici promised to form a commission to investigate the NOC and to announce the results in the near future.
