NAO questions €12 million in sports grants approved without full scrutiny

Almost €12 million in public funding for two major sports programmes was approved by the National Development and Social Fund despite auditors finding that its own funding rules were not uniformly applied.

A recent National Audit Office follow-up report examined two projects approved for funding in 2025: €5 million for SportMalta and up to €6.94 million for the Malta Football Association.

The NAO found that the NDSF did not apply provisions in its Withdrawal of Funds Policy consistently and that it had no standardised system for documenting whether the policy had been followed.

The Fund told auditors it regarded its own policy as a “guidance document rather than a mandatory framework”.

The policy includes requirements for assessing financial and economic viability. At the same time, grants exceeding €200,000 require the NDSF to appoint an auditor, at the beneficiary’s expense, to verify financial information and project feasibility.

The most significant shortcomings identified concerned a €5 million grant to SportMalta for the Maltese Olympic Committee’s High-Performance Strategy, intended to prepare national athletes for international competitions.

Auditors found that detailed costings were not obtained before the €5 million project was approved.

The NDSF said it had previously financed a grant connected to the Small States Games and used information submitted for that project as the basis for approving the new funding because the projects were considered similar.

As a result, SportMalta was not asked to submit a new cost-benefit analysis.

The NAO said this did not conform with the Fund’s own thresholds, under which detailed costings should have been requested before approval.

The second project involved up to €6.94 million for the Malta Football Association’s Youth Development and International Participation Programme for 2025-2028.

The programme is intended to strengthen Malta’s football development through youth training and international participation, with the funding distributed in equal instalments over four years.

Unlike the SportMalta grant, the NAO noted favourably that the MFA had submitted a cost-benefit analysis.

However, while the NDSF had approved the €6.94 million grant in principle, the agreement had still not been finalised by May 2026.

State aid clearance was only obtained in April.

The findings form part of wider concerns over how the Fund scrutinises and monitors the millions it distributes.

The NAO noted that for projects falling outside the remit of its Project Technical Monitor, responsibility for certifying works and invoices remains largely with beneficiaries themselves.

Auditors said the NDSF was effectively “relinquishing” certification to beneficiaries rather than taking a more proactive role before public funds are disbursed.

The NAO concluded that controls introduced by the Fund had still “not been effectively embedded in the project approval and oversight of funding processes”, calling for more consistent governance and risk management across all projects.