Mitchell calls for reform at 'every level' of the Olympic movement

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Changes needed 'at all levels'

March 1, 1999
Web posted at: 12:08 p.m. EST (1708 GMT)

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Proposal: Only 'nominal' gifts

Proposal: Term limits for IOC members

USOC to respond

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NEW YORK (CNN) -- Calling for reform "at every level" of the Olympic movement, an independent commission created by the U.S. Olympic Committee made a series of recommendations on Monday aimed at avoiding future bribery scandals like the one surrounding Salt Lake City's winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games.

But the five-member commission, headed by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, did not propose any personnel changes in the worst corruption case in Olympic history.

"What the Salt Lake City people did was wrong. But they did not invent this culture," Mitchell said at a news conference. "It was in existence and attributable in part to the closed processes and unaccountability at the international level."

The panel's report, after a two-month investigation, urged better policing of Olympic bids, both within the United States and globally.

"Despite the fact that everyone recognizes the Olympics to be a huge commercial enterprise, the International Olympic Committee and its constituent organizations lack the accountability and the openness needed to keep up with the role the Olympic Games play in the world today," Mitchell told reporters.

"We found responsibility at the local, national and international levels of the Olympic movement for the improper conduct ... so we believe there must be reform at every level," he said, calling the panel's findings unanimous.


Samaranch

"The USOC shares responsibility for the improper conduct of the bid and organizing committees of Salt Lake City," Mitchell said.

Despite the criticism, however, the U.S. investigators did not call for the resignation of any USOC officials or IOC Chairman Juan Antonio Samaranch.

"If President Samaranch and the entire leadership of the International Olympic Committee retired tomorrow and there were no other changes, the problems of the IOC would continue," Mitchell said.

Proposal: Only 'nominal' gifts

Instead, the panel offered to the USOC several anti-corruption recommendations:

U.S. cities bidding to host Olympic Games should be banned from giving gifts of "more than nominal value" to USOC and IOC members.

Travel expenses for USOC and IOC members should not be paid directly by bidding cities. Instead, said Mitchell, "travel to bid cities and other expenses should be paid out of a central fund administered by the USOC, in the selection of a U.S. candidate city, and out of a central fund administered by the IOC in the selection of a host city."

The USOC, he said, "must strengthen its oversight of the site selection process by establishing an independent office of bid compliance."


Eight U.S. cities -- Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Tampa and Washington D.C./Baltimore -- are vying to be the summer Olympic venue for 2012

But otherwise, the USOC escaped with little more than a slap on the wrist from the commission. The report's harshest language dealt with management of USOC's training program, which in at least one case was manipulated to help Salt Lake's cause.

Proposal: Term limits for IOC members

The USOC investigators also made proposals to the International Olympic Committee, recommending that:

Most IOC members be elected by the Olympic committees and other national sports organizations in their home countries, not appointed as they are now.

IOC members serve for a limited period of time, rather than for life as they do now.

Athletes chosen for the IOC should be elected by fellow athletes.

The IOC should include "members of the public sector, who best represent the interests of the public."

Any city chosen to host games be required to sign a document certifying it did not engage in bribery.

The IOC conduct regular audits and make public its financial records

USOC to respond

The USOC investigators:

• George Mitchell (panel chairman)
• Jeff Benz, a lawyer and member of the USOC's athletes council
• Ken Duberstein, former White House chief of staff under Ronald Reagan
• Donald Fehr, head of the Major League Baseball players' union
• Roberta Cooper Ramo, past president of the American Bar Association

Mitchell's commission lacked subpoena power and had to rely heavily on public record.

It received almost 200,000 documents from USOC files as well as responses from letters sent to some 400 present and former committee officials and staff members.

The letter asked about gifts they received from Salt Lake City or other cities hoping to be America's candidate for the 1998 and 2002 Winter Games.

The findings were submitted to the U.S. Olympic Committee's executive board just before being released at Monday's news conference in New York.

The USOC is to respond at its own news conference Wednesday in Washington.

In a related development Monday, a special IOC panel has issued recommendations on whether to impose sanctions against the 13 members still under investigation in the Salt Lake City scandal.

Jacques Rogge, a member of the six-man inquiry panel that met in Switzerland during the weekend, said the group sent its findings to Samaranch and the IOC's executive board. Rogge said he didn't know when the board would convene to act on the panel's report.

The inquiry commission can recommend that members be expelled, exonerated or warned.

Nine IOC members already have resigned or been ousted in connection with cash payments, scholarships, free medical care and other inducements offered by Salt Lake.

RELATED STORIES:

Salt Lake scandal could roll more Olympic heads
February 25, 1999
Atlanta Olympic official admits gift excesses, denies 'abuse'
February 19, 1999
Federal probe of Salt Lake Olympic bid 'pretty wide'
February 18, 1999
New Salt Lake Olympic leader vows clean Games
February 11,1999
'Thorough' Olympic bribery probe promised
December 29, 1998

RELATED SITES:

International Olympic Committee
U.S. Olympic Committee: USOC Online - The Olympics
Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic Winter Games of 2002
Utah Division of Travel Development

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