Former track and field champion Gabriela Szabo announced on Wednesday that a Bucharest court overturned the decision of the capital’s mayor, Nikusor Dan, to remove her from the leadership of the Bucharest Municipal Sports Club and decided to re-appoint her as the club’s general director. Sabo was ousted as head of CSM Bucharest in June, and on Monday Nikusor Dan announced that he would report to DNA for the illegal awarding of bonuses at the sports club.

The decision of the Bucharest Court is not final.

The court also determined that the general mayor of the capital, Nikushor Dan, must pay Gabriela Sabo moral damages in the amount of 10,000 lei.

• “On 23.11.2022, the Bucharest Court, Second Section of Administrative and Tax Disputes, issued a decision in the first instance, by which business trip order no. 1245 issued by Mayor Dan Nikusor Daniel on 06/03/2022 after an announcement on a social network.
• In addition to the obligation imposed by the court in terms of the appointment of Gabriela Szabo to the position of General Director of the Bucharest Municipal Sports Club, the defendant, the Mayor General of the Municipality of Bucharest, was obliged to pay an amount of 10,000 lei. as compensation for moral damage and payment of court costs, Gabriela Szabo wrote on Instagram and Facebook.

By the time this news was sent, the decision of the Bucharest Court had not been published on the court’s portal.

On June 3, the mayor of the capital announced that he had dismissed Gabriela Szabo from the management of CSM Bucharest, saying that the main reason was due to the low results recorded by the Bucharest sports club in the last period.

• “I have decided to change the management of the Bucharest Municipal Sports Club. CSM General Director Gabriela Szabo will be seconded to manage the Dulles Center, and one of the deputy directors will be temporarily appointed in her place.
• Before taking this decision, I discussed it with the members of the board of directors of CSM Bucharest, and the conclusion was clear – changes are necessary.
• The current management did not achieve competitive goals, caused the departure of valuable people and had bad management (hasty and non-consultative decisions, as well as procrastination in making other decisions, inability to harmonize internal relations, conflicting approaches in interaction with the heads of sports departments). (…)
• I emphasize that I appreciate Gabriela Szabo’s sporting performances, but the decision I made concerns her activities at the head of CSM Bucharest,” Nikušor Dan said on Facebook at the time.

Also then, he announced that he was sending the Control Authority to conduct inspections at CSM Bucharest.

Nikushor Dan, appeal to DNA for illegal bonuses in CSM Bucharest. Gabriela Szabo, among the beneficiaries

On Monday, Nikusor Dan announced that he will inform DNA about the irregularities found at the Municipal Sports Club (CSM Bucharest) following the Control Authority’s inspections aimed at CSM’s activities in the period 2017-2022. According to the mayor, it is about bonuses in the total amount of 1,076,330 lei to employees who were not entitled to this money.

Nikushor Dan says that the following violations were found during the inspections:

• “In 2018, CSM paid bonuses totaling 1,076,330 lei to employees who were not entitled to this money, namely administrative staff. According to the legislation in force at the time, prizes for winning competitions could only be awarded to athletes and technical teams (coaches, doctors, physiotherapists).

• A significant part of the total amount paid to the administrative staff, namely 190,965 lei, was collected in several installments by CSM CEO Gabriela Szabo, also in the form of a bonus.
• At the same time, the Supervisory Authority also found a possible conflict of interest arising from a contract concluded by the club’s management in 2018 with a company with which Gabriela Szabo later signed a copyright transfer agreement in the same year.
• In addition to these problems, it was also found that the successive reorganizations of the institution, carried out in 2017-2019, were inferior and did not lead to improved performance.
• The legal process for the period 2018-2022 caused expenses in the amount of 2,928,065 lei, representing the costs of lawyers. To them are added compensations and court costs in the amount of 1,722,852 lei (so far).
• Also, no database was found on the number of athletes by division and by age, so all the figures provided by the PMB for the years 2018-2022 were unfounded approximations.
• In addition, there is no procedure regarding the transfer of athletes, regarding the criteria that should be taken into account in the process of selecting an athlete, how to roughly estimate the value of an athlete, a fact that over time has led to financial losses.”