The relevant departments of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia have reviewed IDFI's report on the National Wrestling Federation of Georgia. In this regard we explain and present our own position regarding the matter:

• Excerpt from IDFI's report: The financial statements of the Wrestling State Program are not in line with the Ministry's budget execution reports. E.g. In 2017, only an actual expenditure information of GEL 782,785.38 was provided, whereas GEL 3,500,000 was allocated for the State Wrestling Support Program under the Ministry's 2017 budget. The balance between the funds transferred by the Ministry and the funds returned by the Ministry is not maintained by the financial documents officially provided by the Ministry. For example, according to the 2017 documentation, the Ministry transferred GEL 1,786,835, of which GEL 282,785.38 was actually incurred, whilst returning GEL 173,001.62, information regarding the remaining GEL 831,048.0 was not provided.

Ministry’s official response: In this section of the report, IDFI provides inaccurate figures. Specifically, the approved plan of the State Wrestling Support Program for 2017 was GEL 3 500 000, whilst the adjusted amount was GEL 3 750 000. Out of the adjusted amount, a total of GEL 3 745 638 was a cash expense. Hence, the actual expense of 2017 amount to GEL 3 504 672, the Fiscal Year 2017 closed Expenses is 214 360 GEL, a total of 26 605 GEL is returned to the 2018 Budget.

• Excerpt from IDFI's report: Money paid to referees invited to the Georgian National Championship in Greco-Roman wrestling in the financial accounts is estimated at 100 GEL per day, whereas, $ 100 per day was incurred, as stated in contracts and acceptance acts.

Ministry's Response: During the mentioned period, the issues of financial settlement between the Ministry and the National Sport Federations were regulated by the decision of the Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia - Decree N180, dated December 19, 2011, on the spending and settlement of funds allocated for financing sports activities. According to Article 3, paragraph 6, provides for the remuneration of referees invited to national competitions must not exceed GEL 100 per day, and therefore, as mentioned in the report the remuneration did not in fact exceed GEL 100 per day. However, the federation itself is not restricted to contracting a referee service that cost more than 100 GEL per day. Therefore, in order to cover the costs of the service, the government used the 100 GEL per day allowance, whilst using the federation’s resources to cover the rest. Consequently, as it was impossible to create separate contracts for the contracted referees, the government decided to state the entire costs for the services.

• Excerpt from IDFI report: Out of 63,580 GEL allocated to the administrative team, the largest monetary award (12,980 GEL) was awarded to the Federation's financial adviser for the results shown at the 2018 European Greco-Roman Wrestling Championship.

Official response: Within the "Sportsmen for promotion of state program approval" framework of 6 January 2014, the Government Decree N39, the results achieved in an Olympic or non-Olympic sports are always followed by the established monetary. The above-mentioned circumstance, indicated by IDFI, relates to the prize money awarded to the administrative team of the federation, in accordance to the result of the 2018 European Championship. This is a case, where the administrative team must receive a monetary prize as well, a total 10% of the entire prize pool. To ensure the transparency of the procedure, the funds are transferred to the federation, which is in charge to distribute the money to the individuals working in the administrative team.

• Excerpt from IDFI report: Ministry of Finance did not fully submit financial reports of National Wrestling Federation

The Federation has undertaken its obligations under relevant agreements; avoiding the disclosure of such accounts indicates the Ministry's unwillingness to disclose certain information and / or failure to fulfill its obligations under the agreement.

Ministry's Response: This part of the report is completely incomprehensible and refers to the practice of not knowing the practice of spending money and funds allocated to fund sports activities approved by the Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia, as indicated in the Decree N180 of December 19, 2011, According to which the financial statements of the Federation are always (and still are) present. With respect to any funding received from budgetary allocations, the settlement between the Ministry and the Federation shall be considered complete when the Federation has provided comprehensive information / documentation on each expenditure, otherwise, even further financing of the Federation itself within the framework of the respective program allocations. It is complicated. Thus, the reference to the failure of the Federation to fulfill this obligation is completely out of touch with reality, and the appeal to the "wish to conceal information" is devoid of any grounds. Public disclosure of information by the Ministry is always in compliance with the requirements of the General Administrative Code.

• Excerpt from IDFI report: The National Wrestling Federation has not been subject to the State Audit Office, which significantly weakens consistent financial control and increases the risk of corruption.

Ministry's response: The state audit is conducted annually by the ministry and relevant reports are posted on the state audit site https://sao.ge/.

In addition to the above, two more questions raised in the IDFI report must be answered. Specifically, one relates to the alleged transportation fees of 8276.25 GEL within the city of Tbilisi (the sports equipment delivery, shipped from Germany), however, the confusion caused by the report submitted to the relevant paragraphs of the costs of targeting unspecified reference, because in fact, the sum of money involved was from Germany to Georgia and the subsequent ground transportation costs, and the related VAT costs. Thus, any allegation that the said amount was paid only for the transportation within the city is simply lacking in factual arguments.

The second fact relates to the Greco-Roman wrestler's situation, namely, why wasn’t the monetary prize re-taken from the sportsmen, due to his violation of the anti-doping rules. In this respect it should be noted that neither at the time of issuance of the monetary prize (end of August 2018) nor at the time of submitting an application to the Ministry for information (IDFI) on this matter (25 April 2019), no official written was given to the Ministry regarding his violation of any regulations. Nor the 10-month disqualification from participating any competitions. At the same time, due to the violation of anti-doping rules by any athlete, even the leak of information to the public domain would not be an automatic basis for requesting back a cash prize if the relevant international federation did not decide on the result of that person (for which a monetary prize was awarded). On cancellation and confiscation of a medal. As we know, the International Wrestling Federation has just made a decision to seize the medal for this wrestler, and therefore, after receiving a formal written notification, the Ministry will be guided by these decisions, international practices and similar practices. It will take individual measures within the framework of the legislation to take actions to secure the refund of the money transferred.