The Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) announced in a statement yesterday that for the past two years it has been receiving complaints from a number of residents indicating that many fitness centres are, in fact, run by sports or gymnastics associations, thereby illegally engaging in commercial activities. This, the statement said, has raised concerns about the sector’s lack of supervision by the Sports Bureau (ID).
The statement pointed out that the situation violates the law concerning commercial activities that require prior approval by the authorities.
According to a CCAC investigation, the Sports Bureau has meanwhile launched a follow-up investigation into the matter and previously initiated sanctioning procedures against nine businesses suspected of violating the relevant regulations. However, after the sanctioning procedures were initiated in mid-July 2024, no fines were imposed on seven of the nine businesses involved, nor were any follow-up measures taken, the statement said.
According to the CCAC statement, the Sports Bureau insisted that since the Legal Affairs Bureau (DSAJ) was in the process of revising the relevant decree-law and drafting an amendment bill, the sanctioning procedures for those cases were suspended.
However, the Commission Against Corruption said in the statement that ongoing legal amendments cannot be considered as statutory grounds for suspending any sanctioning procedures, pointing out that the Sports Bureau had suspended its relevant sanctioning procedures for eight months, while the processing of new complaints and referral of individual cases to other official entities were also suspended.
Upon CCAC intervention and suggestions, the statement underlined, the Sports Bureau has already reviewed all cases comprehensively, carried out further inspections, and implemented corresponding measures to actively advance the progress of all cases under investigation.
The statement noted that the Commission Against Corruption has already archived the cases and listed them for “retrospective review” and for the Sports Bureau to continuously and regularly follow up on the supervisory work and the investigative progress regarding the respective complaints.
This image downloaded from the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) website yesterday shows its official logo.
