The Sports Development Fund will not be established for now after the Union of Municipalities assessed that the proposal to partially finance it from the Equalization Fund was unacceptable, as it would reduce the income of 17 municipalities by around 2,5 million euros per year, which is why the Ministry of Sports and Youth suspended this initiative until a stable financing model is provided.
"Considering that the Association of Municipalities submitted an opinion on the amendments to the Law on Sports, which related to the financing of the Sports Development Fund and from the Equalization Fund, and considering that the opinion is well-founded that these funds are used to finance exclusively local governments, the Ministry of Sports and Youth has temporarily stopped the aforementioned activities until the conditions for regular and secure financing are created. Therefore, the Sports Development Fund will not be included in the Law on Sports at this time," the Minister of Sports and Youth officially confirmed to "Vijesti" yesterday. Dragoslav Šcekić.
The plan was to finance the sports development fund from revenues from games of chance, national and international programs, donations, and sponsorships, while the administrative part of the costs would come from the state budget.
The Ministry put the draft amendments to the Law on Sports for public discussion on May 20th, which lasted for 20 days. The amendments to the Law on Sports should soon be presented at a Government session.
"We expect that the Ministry of Finance will give its opinion on the Draft Amendments to the Law on Sports today, and that it will be on the Government's agenda as soon as possible. We believe that such a Draft should receive general support because it significantly improves the existing legal solution and corrects many injustices from the previous period, but also creates opportunities for the development of sports in Montenegro," said Šćekić.
The Union of Municipalities stated at the beginning of last month that it had given a "negative opinion" on this act, explaining that it was contrary to the Law on Financing Local Self-Government, according to which only municipalities can receive money from the Equalization Fund.
"With its reduction, the 17 municipalities that benefit from the Fund would be directly harmed, as their funds would be reduced by around 2,5 million euros per year, which is unacceptable for local governments," the Association of Municipalities said.
According to the draft law that was under public debate, it was planned that the money for the sports development fund would be provided, among other things, from five percent of the funds from the Equalization Fund.
It was planned that the Sports Development Fund would implement a policy of supporting the development of sports, announce and conduct competitions for financing sports programs and projects, allocate money to sports organizations, associations and other sports entities in accordance with state aid regulations, monitor the implementation of contracts and control the spending of funds, keep records of beneficiaries of funds... It was estimated that the establishment of this Fund would require around 250.000 per year. It would have employees, a director, and a Board of Directors.
"We believe that this Draft should receive general support because it significantly improves the existing legal solution and corrects many injustices from the previous period, but also creates opportunities for the development of sports in Montenegro," said Šćekić.
MOC and POK receive money over a certain percentage
One of the important innovations that will be brought by the amendments to the Law on Sports is a change in the method of financing the umbrella sports organization of the Montenegrin Olympic Committee (COK), the Paralympic Committee (POK) and national sports federations.
MOC and POK have so far participated in the competition like all associations and received money that the commission estimates is sufficient for the proposed programs. According to the new proposal, MOC would have a fixed share of 12 percent of the money allocated in the sports budget, and POK five percent.
The proposed amendments give the MOC a more significant and demanding role in the Montenegrin sports system, following the example of the International Olympic Charter and comparative experiences of other national Olympic committees, where several additional mandatory financial expenditures for the MOC have been introduced, such as financing the work of the Montenegrin Olympic House, financing the preparation and participation of Olympic candidates, organizing and conducting a professional exam for work in the field of sports, co-financing projects of organizations and associations in the field of sports that aim to promote Olympic values, public interest in the field of sports and promotion of achievements in the field of sports science. For these activities, it is proposed to introduce a fixed amount of 12 percent, in order to ensure sustainable financing.
The Ministry also states that the proposed method does not require additional funds from the budget, but only internally redefines existing funds in accordance with the position of the MOC and the POK in the sports system and expanded competencies that require its stronger financial role.
We would coordinate the money for the alliances together.
The law also provides for a different distribution of budget funds for national sports federations. Until now, they have submitted their programs to the ministry for co-financing, which stated what they planned to do and how much money they estimated they needed. The commission then assessed whether these costs were justified in accordance with that program and only estimated how much money was enough for the federations.
However, now the associations will submit programs to the Ministry, and then a meeting will be organized with each of them to jointly discuss the program and the amount of money needed.
"As Article 39, paragraph 2 of the Law on Sports stipulates that only one sports federation can be established for the same sport, the current model of financing through public competition had as its key problem the uncertainty of allocating regular annual financial resources to national sports federations. Specifically, if a certain national sports federation did not meet the conditions of the public competition, that federation, and therefore the sport it represents, would automatically be deprived of regular financial resources, which would cause numerous consequences for the functioning of that sport (e.g. covering the costs of participating in prestigious international tournaments on which the international reputation of our country in that sport depends, etc.). For this reason, a new model of financing the umbrella organization of sports and national sports federations has been proposed. First, the aforementioned sports organizations would be required to submit a program for a period of one year, with an estimate of the amount of funds needed to implement the program, and a detailed plan for spending the funds," the Ministry of Sports explained.
After that, expert teams of the Ministry of Sports and Youth and the aforementioned sports organizations would be formed with the aim of harmonizing the proposed obligations and financial claims, after which contracts would be concluded on financing the program activities of the umbrella sports organization and national sports federations.
"In this way, we appreciate that the possibility of a certain association not receiving funds for its regular program activities, which, in terms of the Law on Sports, are considered to be of public interest, has been avoided, while on the other hand, based on consultations with the Ministry of Sports and Youth, we could determine what the priorities in the area of public interest are for a specific year," is the position of the Ministry of Sports.
The Montenegrin Olympic House is being formed
The Montenegrin Olympic House is being organized with the aim of promoting cultural values, basic principles and values of Olympism, their presentation and protection, as well as educating professional staff in sports.
The Montenegrin Olympic House will be a separate organizational unit of the MOC. The Director would be elected by the MOC Board of Directors.
"The Olympic House consists of: the Olympic Museum, the Olympic Academy and the Olympic Development Center," the draft law states.
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