The Administration for Sports and Youth broke all deadlines

When on September 23, 2021, Vasilije Lalošević was dismissed from the position of director of the Sports and Youth Administration, with many bad words directed at him, Marko Begović was chosen as the new head of the administration under the patronage of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports.

The former tennis player promised that the problem with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which is why Lalošević's mandate was not extended, will be resolved promptly. After more than five months, WADA announced on March 1 that Montenegro was removed from the watch list.

"The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) confirms that the following three National Anti-Doping Organizations (NADOs) have successfully resolved their non-compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code and have therefore been removed from the compliance 'watch list': the German Community of Belgium, Montenegro and Romania," it says. on the Wade site.

Such a scenario came about thanks to the Law on Amendments to the Law on Sports, which was published in the Official Gazette on November 26 and became valid eight days later. Article 102 reads: "In order to monitor and implement international conventions against doping in sports, the Anti-Doping Commission (hereinafter: the Commission) is established." The Commission has the status of a legal entity and is independent in its work", while Article 144a states: "The Council of the Commission shall be appointed within three months from the date of entry into force of this law. The Statute of the Commission shall be adopted within 30 days from the date of appointment of the Council from paragraph 1 of this Article. The director of the Commission will be appointed within six months from the date of entry into force of this law".

THE COUNCIL OF THE COMMISSION HAD TO BE FORMED BY MARCH 4, AND IT IS NOT KNOWN WHO IS FORMING IT

As the Law on Amendments to the Law on Sports entered into force on December 4, the Council of the Anti-Doping Commission, whose three members are appointed by the Council for Sports, the Montenegrin Olympic Committee (COK) and the Montenegrin Paralympic Committee (POK), had to be formed until March 4.

Although proposals were previously submitted that the members of the Council of the Anti-Doping Commission should be the president of the Council for Sports Jovanka Radičević, Dr. Aleksandar-Saša Radović (COK) and Dr. Aleksandar Kujović (POK), that three-member body has not yet met. "Vijesti" learned that on Monday, the Administration for Sports and Youth contacted a proposed member for the first time.

In the legal amendments, to make matters worse, it is not even formulated who forms the Council of the Anti-Doping Commission, which should adopt the Statute and elect the director for a five-year term. It is also not stated who is in charge of examining paragraph 3 of Article 103, which states: "A person who is a member of the governing body of a sports organization, or a representative of state bodies, or political parties, cannot be appointed as a member of the Council of the Commission."

JAVAŠLUK WITH ALLOCATION OF FUNDS TO SPORTS ORGANIZATIONS

March is well underway, and the national sports federations have not yet received a single euro from the state. On January 28, the Directorate for Sports and Youth announced a public competition for co-financing the program of sports organizations in 2022, to which COK, POK and national sports federations recognized by the International Olympic Committee could apply until February 7.

The committee for allocation of funds had a deadline of 20 days to review the documentation and submit to the Administration a report on the assessment of the program, with a proposal for the amount of funds to be allocated to the sports organization for the implementation of the program, and it has a deadline of 10 days to decide. Therefore, the Commission should have finished everything by February 27, and today the deadline for the Administration to publish the results of the competition, i.e. how much money will belong to whom.

Apart from the fact that the budget for sports organizations was reduced by 600.000 euros at the suggestion of Begović to the lowest level in the last 10 years, so that less than three million will be distributed (in 2020 it was 4.623.000 euros), the problem is also the lack of attention in the work of the Commission. Sessions could not be held three times because the president, state secretary of MPKNS Milica Kadović Đorojević did not show up, which is why Radičević as president of the Sports Council and Vlado Šćepanović as representative of top athletes left the Commission, because they came to the meetings in vain.

They were replaced by Milan Tičić and Anđela Bulatović, so the newly formed Commission held its first session yesterday and will continue to do so in the following days. It is clear, therefore, that this deadline will also be broken, because everything was supposed to be finished today.

Begović's acting status expires on March 23, because he was elected on September 23 for a period of six months. It would be good if by then these accumulated problems with both commissions and associations are resolved and at least the first tranche of money is paid, because due to the lack of state aid, they are having problems in business. But the question is why they themselves don't raise their voices and complain, because they will receive 35 percent less money than two years ago...

No money for tests, controllers...

The Anti-Doping Commission was formed at the Montenegrin Olympic Committee in 2018, but its existence is not sufficient according to the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). She does the work that should be taken over by the new Commission, but she has not received a single cent from the state for over half a year. In the run-up to the Olympic Games in Tokyo, her expenses were covered by COK.

- Since August, the anti-doping commission has had no funds for work, which makes it impossible for Montenegro to fulfill its obligations as a member of WADA. We are not able to get "whales", pay for controllers and laboratory analyzes for regular tests, nor pay for site maintenance. During the mentioned period, the members of the Commission performed their work without compensation - the President of the Anti-Doping Commission Vesna Simović Zvicer told "Vijesta".

Management: We have communicated all activities with international partners

"Vijesti" asked the Administration for Sports and Youth if the Council of the Anti-Doping Commission was formed and who are its members, as well as what consequences Montenegrin athletes may face if the deadline to do so by March 4 is not met.

The Administration responded that "the members of the Council of the Anti-Doping Commission have been appointed: Jovanka Radičević - Sports Council, Aleksandar Radović - COK and Aleksandar Kujović - POK".

"The Statute of the Anti-Doping Commission is adopted by the Council. Montenegrin athletes do not have any consequences, because our partners, first and foremost WADA, UNESCO and the Council of Europe, are aware of the challenges in terms of human resources as early as November. The task of the Council is to announce a public competition for the director of the Anti-Doping Commission after the adoption of the Statute. At this moment, the institutional framework is being finalized. All the mentioned activities and work dynamics are communicated with our international partners. It is important to note that we are not alone in this process and that the expert team of WADA and the T-DO committee of the Council of Europe will arrive soon," the Sports and Youth Administration wrote in the answers.