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Reform IOC special task force meets for the first time
Posted: Monday May 31, 1999 12:27 PM
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -- Six months after the Olympic corruption scandal broke, the IOC sets out this week on a path of reform which could reshape the 105-year-old organization. A special task force, whose members include Henry Kissinger and Peter Ueberroth, meets for the first time Tuesday to begin the task of rebuilding the International Olympic Committee after its worst crisis. Convinced that the Salt Lake City bribery scandal and its aftershocks are finally behind them, IOC leaders are now taking the first concrete steps toward the future. "This meeting is only the beginning," IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch said in an interview Monday. "We cannot expect any kind of resolution this week. Our aim is to have final decisions by the end of the year. If that's not possible, then by the spring of next year." Samaranch said the reforms would not be dictated by pressure from Arizona Sen. John McCain and other Congressional critics who have threatened to enact legislation that would punish the IOC financially. "They can do what they desire," Samaranch said. "But I repeat: the IOC is run by the IOC members. ... We highly respect the Senate of the United States, but I am sure they also will respect the IOC." Six IOC members were expelled in March and four resigned after being accused of receiving cash or other improper inucements during Salt Lake's successful bid for the 2002 Winter Games. An IOC ethics commission, formed in the wake of the Salt Lake scandal, met last week and drafted a code of conduct for IOC members. On Tuesday, the reform commission -- called IOC 2000 -- will begin examining ways of overhauling the IOC's structure and the process for selecting Olympic host cities, including a radical suggestion to abolish the bidding process. Originally planned as a group of 20-24 people, the commission has expanded to 80 members -- 44 from the IOC and 36 from outside. IOC leaders have rejected critics' complaints that the body, chaired by Samaranch, is too large to work effectively. "The more people participating in the decision process, the more likely the reforms will pass in the general assembly," IOC board member Jacques Rogge said. The commission is divided into three working groups: the composition and structure of the IOC, the role of the IOC, and the selection of Olympic host cities. The panel examining the IOC structure, viewed as the most significant group, is chaired by Italian IOC member and former Rome Mayor Franco Carraro. German executive board member Thomas Bach leads the group dealing with the IOC's role, while American IOC vice president Anita DeFrantz heads the panel on site selection. A 26-member executive committee, divided equally among IOC and non-IOC member, will be appointed Tuesday to oversee the reform process. Among the most prominent names of non-IOC members on the commission are Kissinger, the former U.S. Secretary of State; Ueberroth, chief organizer of the 1984 Los Angeles Games; Italian industrialist Giovanni Agnelli; former U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt; NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol; and Nobel Peace Price winner and former Costa Rica president Oscar Arias Sanchez. The commission is scheduled to submit a preliminary report June 20 at the next IOC general assembly in Seoul, South Korea. Final recommendations are due to be prepared by the end of October, submitted to all IOC members for review in November and adopted at an extraordinary general assembly in December. Among the structural reforms expected to be considered are changes in the way the IOC cooses its members, including new age limits and possible term limits. The IOC's traditional system of co-opting members for virtual life terms is expected to be abolished. In 1995, the IOC raised its age limit from 75 to 80 to allow Samaranch to gain another term as president. Now, the IOC is expected to consider reducing the limit to as low as 70. As a response to the Salt Lake scandal, the IOC has imposed restrictions on the bidding and selection process for the 2006 Winter Games. IOC members are banned from inspecting the candidate cities and bid officials are foridden from visiting IOC members. A special panel will reduce the field of six European cities to two finalists in Seoul on June 19. On the same day, the full assembly will choose the winner. DeFrantz said the IOC commission should consider scrapping the entire bidding process in the future and let the IOC decide where it wants to stage the games and negotiate directly with that city. "The problems we have had since 1985-86 involve the bidding process," she said. "One way to solve the problem of the bidding process is to not have a bidding process. We could say, `We really want the games in city X,' and see what would they need, what it would cost."
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