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Minister of Sport Eduard Novak stated on Monday at the "Government Question Time" debate within the Chamber of Deputies, that it is very frustrating that through attacks on him, it is desired that some historical sports results be deleted, referring to the accusations according to which he would have illegally awarded his father, who is a federal cycling coach.
"Regarding the verification and control mechanisms at the level of the Ministry of Sport, a system procedure on conflict of interest and an operational procedure on life annuity are approved. All documents are checked according to clear procedures and must meet the criteria of Government Decision 884/ 2001, for the approval of the regulation implementing the provisions of the Physical Education and Sport Law number 69/2000. All of this is subject to the analysis of a commission, which forwards the reports with a proposal for approval to the authorizing officer. So all annuities and premiums go through a series of verifications. I want to clarify one thing, the Ministry of Sport does not award anyone in its own name. There are very clear legislative provisions based on which awards are granted for sport performances, in accordance with HG 1447 of 2007. The list of awarded people is drawn up and submitted together with the request of the federation or national paralympic committee, following that the request and all the documents underlying to be analyzed from all points of view. There are many athletes in the situation where the 1st degree relatives are in their staff. They bring great results in Romanian sport and the rights they receive are based on the merits in the field. This is not about Novak, the son who awarded his father. He is an emeritus coach, decorated in 2008, 2012, with the Order of Sport Merit 2nd degree and then 1st degree. He was present as a staff member, counselor or adviser on his own budget, at all editions of the Paralympic Games, from 2004, 2008, 2012 , 2016, 2021, and at all the World Championships, totaling 26 medals won," Novak stated from the tribune of the Chamber of Deputies.
Eduard Novak ascribes the attacks on him to some groups that want to destabilize the Romanian sport: "In fact, these attacks for which we are here today are nothing more than a campaign of denigration carried out directly by the Union for Youth and Sport against me. If I'm still here and I'm responding to complaints from the union, we wonder what the role of the union is, to analyze the minister's activity or to represent the interests of the employees?."
Novak motivated the decrease of performances in Romanian sports through the change of ministers from this portfolio, also mentioning that progress has been noticed in the last two years.
"From 24 Olympic medals in Sydney we got to four medals, only 84pct regression in the Romanian sport. All this has some causes, there have been many ministers throughout these years, there was no pressure on the federations and there was somehow the discussion 'give us the money and leave us alone'. This is where we stand today, discussing about the disaster of the Romanian sport, which, fortunately, for two years was able to achieve results, I don't know how, but we do," the Minister of Sport said.
The Save Romania Union (USR) parliamentary group called the Minister of Sport to "the Government Question Time," the topic of the political debates being the need to clarify the cases of potential conflicts of interest at the Ministry level.
