The Supreme Audit Office negatively evaluated actions of the former Minister of Sport and Tourism related to preparing and conducting the call for proposals as part of the Sport for All Programme for 2023. The former Minister did not ensure reliable selection of offers. What is more, he exceeded his powers by extending subsidies of nearly PLN 88 million – in a non-transparent manner and did not make sure applicants were treated equally. The Minister did that without legal justification, upon violating competition regulations and without the assessment made by the competition committee members. NIK underlines that following the former Minister’s decision, the committee members evaluated subsidy applications twice, in line with the former Minister’s instructions. As a result, as part of the first call, eight entities received subsidies totalling PLN 26.6 million. According to NIK, the identified irregularities point to the risk of corruption mechanisms, such as: arbitrary proceedings, lack of procedural transparency, as well as weakness and the lack of ongoing control of subsidy agreements. NIK has filed a report to the prosecutor's office of possible criminal activity in distributing subsidies under the Sport for All Programme.
The Sport for All Programme is financed from the state budget funds, managed by the Minister of Sport and Tourism. The main concept of the Programme is to pursue the strategic goal – an active and healthy society by popularising sport and physical activity and promoting a healthy and active lifestyle.
Key audit findings
The competition under the Sport for All Programme for 2023, in line with the decision of the former Minister of Sport and Tourism, was carried out in two calls, i.e. in November 2022 (1st call) and in February 2023 (2nd call). The division of the Programme in two calls for proposals in 2023 was an independent decision of the former Minister of Sport.
The catalogue of tasks carried out under the first call for proposals included:
- promoting sport in the family and in various social groups;
- popularising sport in the rural environment, including the following programmes: Active Village and Sports Organiser in the Rural Environment;
- supporting sports events organised in Poland as part of the government activities related to the "Cooperation with the Polish diaspora and Poles abroad";
- supporting the Sport for All projects implemented by foundations operating in the field of physical culture.
NIK points out that the deadline for settling the first call for proposals has been postponed by seven days – from 18 to 25 January 2023. In turn, the deadline for the settlement of the second call for proposals was postponed twice, initially from 31 May to 7 June 2023, and then from 7 to 15 June 2023.
Members of the Evaluation Committee reviewing applications submitted under the Sport for All Programme explained during the NIK audit: We received information about the postponement without any explanation. That could have been due to the fact that we had to re-evaluate the applications and change the score. It was at the discretion of the Minister of Sport and Tourism which entities should be subsidised. This is the information we received from the Director. We did not apply for this deadline to be postponed.
As part of the first call, 1080 subsidy applications were submitted for the amount of PLN 219.2 million, and as part of the second call for proposals, 1893 applications for the amount of PLN 351 million.
The NIK auditors found that the "evaluation" of the applications submitted in the competition (1st and 2nd call) was carried out twice at the Minister’s request. The Minister did not take into account the initial assessment made by the Evaluation Committee members, used the criteria that were not provided for in the competition and decided to subsidise offers, selected by himself, submitted under the Sport for All Programme.
In line with the Minister's decision, the Evaluation Committee members adjusted the awarded score following the Minister's instructions and assessed the applications twice. As a result, under the first call, eight entities received additional financing from the state budget totalling PLN 26.6 million. As part of the second call for proposals, PLN 78.9 million in total was granted for 802 applications (a total of 810 applications received PLN 105.5 million under the Sport for All Programme for 2023).
According to the materials obtained during the audit, the subsidy amount in both calls for proposals was changed in case of 583 projects and finally subsidies totalling PLN 87.8 million were granted.
The director of one of the departments of the Ministry of Sport and Tourism testified: (...) I submitted to the Minister a list of entities, which was a proposal of financial support. The Minister indicated eight entities to be subsidised and they have exhausted the competition budget. Therefore, the remaining applications that were positively evaluated at first, had to be rejected. A protocol with a new scoring system was prepared.
A member of the Evaluation Committee for issuing opinions on applications submitted under the Sport for All Programme: In the second call, the Minister also influenced the evaluation of applications, but on a slightly smaller scale. (…) The most controversial thing was that the Minister recommended the rejection of the majority of the applications and indicated which ones should be qualified. Actually, the entire list of entities has been changed. (...) It was an order from the Minister without the possibility of refusal.
In 2023, employees of the Department of Sport for All at the Ministry of Sport and Tourism did not carry out any inspection of the beneficiaries of subsidies granted as part of the Programme. And the mechanisms implemented by the Ministry did not ensure ongoing, effective supervision over the way of implementing individual contracts under the Sport for All Programme.
NIK audited one of the subsidy beneficiaries– the National Association of Rural Sports Teams, which was selected in the first call for proposals and received a subsidy of PLN 14 million. The Association diligently supervised and monitored the implementation of the project, ensuring its timely completion and settlement. However, due to the number of projects and their scope, in some cases it allowed for errors in financial and accounting documentation.
In most cases, the Association correctly spent the money granted by the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, its own funds and funds from other sources (including public ones). In some cases, however, ineligible expenses were found (totalling PLN 6 thousand) as well as gaps and incorrect entries in accounting documents. Other irregularities concerned: gaps in providing information on the project subsidy from the Ministry's funds and errors in reports submitted to the Ministry.
Recommendations
to the Minister of Sport and Tourism to:
- take measures to ensure a transparent process of selecting applications to subsidise a public task;
- take measures to implement transparent procedures for evaluating applications under the Sport for All Programme;
- strengthen the system of monitoring and controlling agreements under the Sport for All Programme, also in the year of their implementation.
to the Chairman of the Main Council of the National Association of Folk Sports Teams to:
- correct the settlement submitted to the Ministry of Sport and Tourism by ineligible expenses of PLN 6 thousand (i.e. for the purchase of clothes) and prepare the task settlement.
The Ministry of Sport and Tourism is in the process of implementing the post-audit recommendations, and in case of the National Association of Rural Sports Teams, the recommendation has already been implemented.
