INTERACTIVE: The scandal: A closer look RELATED DISCUSSION Olympic Bribery

February 19, 1999
Web posted at: 4:21 p.m. EST (2121 GMT)

ATLANTA (CNN) -- A spokesman for Atlanta's Olympic committee admitted Friday that the panel gave gifts to International Olympic Committee officials that exceeded IOC guidelines, but there was no "abuse" in the city's successful bid for the 1996 Summer Games.

"The gift-giving process was and continues to be a popular lobbying tool used by the cities bidding for the Olympic games. The guidelines attached to the gift giving were not always strictly enforced. So bid cities would have to use their judgment in how excessive was excessive," Lee Echols, speaking for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, told CNN.

Charlie Battle, a committee member who is now president of Central Atlanta Progress, told the Washington Post that the Atlanta committee gave a number of gifts to IOC members and their friends that exceeded the $200-per-gift limit.

But Battle told the Post he felt the Atlanta group did nothing wrong.

Among the gifts he described were a $475 set of golf clubs, international airplane tickets, a $400 sports jacket and necktie, and a bulldog that was given to an IOC member from Cuba.

Echols said the gifts had been publicly disclosed before.

"I think the gift limits set by the IOC were not strictly enforced, so cities had to make judgments," he said. "We did not abuse the guidelines."

Records of the Atlanta Olympics, which cost the city $7.8 million, have not been made public.

The Atlanta bid came under new scrutiny after officials at the Salt Lake Organizing Committee admitted giving cash bribes and gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to IOC members.

Several IOC and Salt Lake committee members have resigned as investigations continue in the widening scandal.

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