The former Minister of Sports, Eduard Novak, has revealed that the Secretary General of the Romanian Rowing Federation (FRC) and the Chief Accountant of the same institution are set to receive higher bonuses from the Olympic Games than swimmer David Popovici. According to Novak, Mr. Cătălin Erhan and Ms. Roxana Petrescu are proposed to receive €162,400 each, while gold medal-winning athletes at the Paris Olympics will receive €140,000 for their achievements.
Novak highlighted the disparity, noting that Popovici will earn €22,000 less than the bureaucrats from the FRC. Elisabeta Lipă, head of the National Agency for Sports, defended the legality of these bonuses, stating that federation staff are rewarded every four years. She emphasized that those who wish to be rewarded must work hard and achieve results, asserting that 40% of each medal's bonus is allocated to federation personnel.
Furthermore, Lipă clarified that the total amount is not solely for the accountant but is distributed among all federation employees, which includes around 60 staff members. She pointed out that salaries within the federation are modest, typically just above the minimum wage. The President of the Romanian Rowing Federation, Valeriu Gavril, indicated that the two employees proposed for the significant bonuses could share their amounts with their colleagues if they choose to do so.