'It's quite unacceptable'
IOC official contests Mitchell report finding
Posted: Tuesday March 02, 1999 04:19 PM
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Gosper: "We should make some structural changes to strengthen our accountability and our transparency. We continue to work on that." AP |
LONDON (AP) -- A senior IOC official Tuesday disputed a U.S. ethics panel's contention that the international committee fostered a "culture of improper gift giving" that led to corruption in the Olympic bid process.
The U.S. Olympic Committee panel, headed by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, leveled most of the blame for the Salt Lake City vote-buying scandal on the IOC.
But Kevan Gosper, an IOC executive board member from Australia, said Mitchell's report failed to acknowledge that since 1987 the committee has had rules on gifts, travel and other items related to the bid process.
"It's quite unacceptable to say that the IOC has created an environment which has enabled gift giving and rewards to run out of control," Gosper said in a telephone interview from Melbourne. "I take strong objection to that."
In its report issued Monday, the panel said the conduct "tolerated by the IOC is potentially illegal and inevitably corruptive." It said leaders turned a blind eye to corruption that was "flourishing" even as the Olympics grew into a billion-dollar industry.
The report said the International Olympic Committee created the atmosphere responsible for the scandal over cash payments and other improper inducements stemming from Salt Lake's winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games.
Gosper said the IOC set "very specific" limits for bid cities, and "constantly refined" the rules.
"An organization like ours relies on candidate cities and IOC members to comply with those rules," he said. "If they had complied, we wouldn't have had the problems we did in Salt Lake City."
Gosper conceded, however, that IOC leaders should have done more to enforce the rules.
"We haven't sufficiently pursued the compliance in terms of IOC members and the candidate cities," he said.
Gosper welcomed Mitchell's recommended reforms, which include opening the IOC's books to annual public audits and having the bulk of IOC members elected to limited terms by other sports bodies. The IOC traditionally picks its own members to virtual life terms.
"I accept that [Mitchell] has a case for increased transparency and a number of reforms," Gosper said. "We should make some structural changes to strengthen our accountability and our transparency. We continue to work on that."
For example, Gosper said, the IOC was planning to set up an ethics committee and introduce a code of conduct for its members at a special general assembly on March 17-18.
But Gosper warned that a radical overhaul of the IOC cannot take place in one sitting.
"People have to understand we are not a bureaucracy with bars on our shoulders and rings around our sleeves that can drive this overnight," he said. "It's a much more complex process."
Gosper expressed concern the IOC was not being credited for its achievements, particularly in delivering successful Olympic Games.
"We are going through a difficult period at the moment," he said. "But we are not out of business. It is our job to recover our position sensibly and quietly with some sensible reforms.
"While the focus has been on a few people who acted improperly, the IOC does comprise very responsible people. It has been pretty hard to get that message through the static of the last few months."
Gosper said he expected the executive board to convene by conference call this week to deal with remaining cases of members implicated in the Salt Lake scandal.
He said it was especially important to exonerate any members found innocent of wrongdoing.
"We should be through the process by Friday," Gosper said. "We need to take those names who have mentioned out of limbo and clear them."
Gosper predicted that fellow Australian IOC member Phil Coles, accused of accepting excessive hospitality during several visits to Salt Lake City, would be exonerated.
"I believe he will be cleared of improper conduct," he said. "My analysis of all the information is he didn't seriously breach the [bidding] guidelines."
But Gosper said Coles needs to account publicly for his activities.
"It would be wise for him to sit down and quietly explain his events to the press and be as open and transparent as possible," Gosper said. "I'm sure he will do that."
So far, nine IOC members have either resigned or been ousted in the Salt Lake affair.
The special IOC inquiry commission, headed by vice president Dick Pound, met in Switzerland over the weekend to review the remaining cases. The panel will make recommendations to the executive board for action.
Three cases are still pending from the initial phase of Pound's inquiry and 10 new names were implicated last month in a report by the Salt Lake ethics board.
Pound said Monday the panel was looking at an additional six members whose names were included in the board's working papers. That brings the total number of members implicated to 30, more than one-fourth of the total membership.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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