The confrontation between Sports Committee of Parliament and Levan Kipiani, minister of Sport and Youth Affairs, finished with the resignation of the latter. Today Levan Kipiani stated about his resignation at the press conference at the Ministry. According to Kipiani, he does not want to tense situation.
“Taking the recent events into account, I do not want to be involved in political confrontation with the members of my team. These people stepped conscience. So I am leaving my post and I call the members of Sports Committee to do the same. I am in sport and I am staying in sport. Hopefully, new minister will keep the current course. Neither former Prime Minister nor the current one has participated in my decision. I have made this decision because I do not want to tense situation. I want to thank Prime Minister, the Cabinet and all employees of the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs” – stated Kipiani.
A month ago the situation escalated between Levan Kipiani and Sports Committee when the MPs listened to Kipiani’s 2014 report. The members of Sports Committee warned Kipiani and demanded to take remarks into account. The minister did not accept the remarks and blamed the MPs for sports politicization. Finally, everything ended up with Levan Kipiani’s resignation.
Levan Kipiani was appointed on the post in 2012 after the parliamentary elections. Before that Lado Vardzelashvili held the mentioned post.
Levan Kipiani is the 7th minister who resigned from Irakli Garibashvili’s Cabinet.
Kipiani also talked about the work he had done in the Ministry.
According to Kipiani, in 2013-2014 the government disbursed 96,6 million GEL for sport. Bonuses and scholarship programs for athletes have increased. Georgia hosted a lot of international sporting events during these two years.