Just 10 days before the start of the Athens Games, the issue of corruption in the Olympic host-city bidding process is back under scrutiny.
A BBC television news programme has secretly filmed four middlemen saying they could secure votes of International Olympic Committee (IOC) members in the contest for the 2012 Summer Games.
One agent claimed more than 30 of the IOC’s 124 members could be influenced, some for a price.
However, there is no conclusive evidence of bribery in the Panorama programme, which will be aired on Wednesday. An advance screening was held for reporters on Tuesday.
Only one IOC member, Bulgaria’s Ivan Slavkov, is specifically implicated. He is shown discussing how to influence the votes of members, but his comments are ambiguous.
One of the agents, Goran Takac, denied any wrongdoing at a news conference on Tuesday. Takac claimed they played along to expose potential corruption.
The IOC, informed of the upcoming BBC programme, asked its ethics commission last week to investigate ”alleged inappropriate conduct within the Olympic movement linked with the bid process”.
IOC spokesperson Giselle Davies said on Tuesday the committee will have no further comment until officials have seen the broadcast.
The matter is expected to be discussed at IOC executive board meetings in Athens later this week.
The programme, Buying the Games, is based on a year-long undercover investigation. Reporters posed as consultants from a fictitious company — New London Ventures — acting for clients with business interests in London who wanted the Games to come to the British capital.
The BBC said its reporters were promised 54 votes for London by four lobbyists — Serbian-based Takac, Gabor Komyathy of Hungary, Mahmood El Farnawani of Egypt and Abdul Muttaleb Ahmad of Kuwait.
The programme reviews the Salt Lake City scandal, which led to the ousting of 10 IOC members in 1998 and 1999 for accepting cash, gifts and other inducements by leaders of the winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games.
The IOC thereafter implemented a series of reforms, including a ban on visits by members to bid cities and strict controls on lobbying.
The BBC programme seeks to show that corruption still exists.
”It’s all about money — full stop,” Takac said in a secretly filmed conversation. ”Money in terms of cash. To create votes.”
”We give you money and you give money to IOC members?” the undercover BBC reporter asked.
”That’s one of the ways,” Takac replied. ”And it will not go through me because you have to be protected, they have to be protected.”
Takac said he could deliver between 15 and 20 votes and that between seven and 10 members would require payment.
He said he would charge £900 000 for the entire campaign. He said an extra ”2,5-million to three million” would be needed to influence the members (the type of currency was not specified).
Komyathy claimed he could bring 20 votes to London. Normally, he said, a member’s vote would cost about £200 000 plus travel and other expenses.
El Farnawani, who had links with the Salt Lake and Sydney 2000 bids, said he could produce at least 14 votes. He said he would charge $25 000 per month for 15 months — plus an extra $250 000 if London won the bid.
A single vote would go for more than $100 000, he said.
However, the programme said he would stick to the rules.
”The crooked group already left the IOC,” El Farnawani said. ”But there are some people who need a personal touch.”
He said they should be approached without ”making them feel that they are getting any kind of a bribe”.
Ahmad, director general of the Olympic Council of Asia, offered to use his contacts to set up meetings with 23 Asian IOC members, but said he wouldn’t be involved in any cash payments to members himself.
IOC vice-president Vitaly Smirnov of Russia was approached by the undercover BBC team but refused a meeting.
”I answered with a categoric no, saying that I can’t and don’t have the right to do that,” he told the Associated Press on Tuesday, adding that he had notified IOC president Jacques Rogge.
Takac said Smirnov also turned down a meeting with Keith Mills, chief executive of London’s official bid committee, because he considered it a breach of the new bid rules.
The London bid committee said it is cooperating with the IOC investigation and has adhered to all ethical regulations.
Takac arranged a meeting in Sofia between the BBC journalists and Slavkov, who is also head of Bulgaria’s national Olympic committee.
Asked how to influence votes, Slavkov said: ”I would say the … different approach. Some are businessmen and they are interested.”
Asked if they wanted favours, he said, ”Yes, in some areas they are interested.”
Asked whether that included offering them a business contract, Slavkov said, ”Yes, yes … The others … they believe in sport.”
Takac claimed more than 30 IOC members could be approached.
Their names were not broadcast. One member, he said, would require ”500 000” — the type of currency was not specified — if London won the Games.
Slavkov, speaking on Tuesday in Sofia, said the case should go to court but declined further comment pending the IOC ethics probe.
Takac said: ”Our only aim was to expose those who want to bribe. I decided that this was the best opportunity to expose the source of the real corruption.”
Attempts to reach the other agents were unsuccessful.
Panorama producers said they will discuss how to assist the IOC investigation, including passing on the 30-plus names mentioned by Takac. — Sapa-AP