A BBC news program claims that International Olympic Committee votes continue to be for sale — despite reforms made in the aftermath of the Salt Lake City bid scandal.
Wednesday's broadcast of "Panorama," the British television network's equivalent of "60 Minutes," featured Dave Johnson, one of two Salt Lake bid leaders acquitted last year of federal charges in connection with cash and gifts given to IOC members during the successful campaign for the 2002 Winter Games.
"You're very much at the mercy of the International Olympic Committee's bid process," Johnson says near the beginning of "Buying the Games," an hourlong segment of the program.
For their investigative report, "Panorama" reporters posed as consultants seeking to advance London's ongoing bid for the 2012 Summer Games and secretly filmed so-called "agents" — including some who worked for Salt Lake City's bid — putting a price on IOC votes.
The amount proposed by an agent in Hungary for 20 votes was equal to more than $241,000 each. Another agent, Mahmood El Farnawani, said he'd helped get eight votes for Salt Lake City and would charge the London consultants more than $2.5 million for 14 votes.
Johnson told the Deseret Morning News that the Salt Lake bid relied on agents like El Farnawani to gain access to IOC members, not to buy votes. "We were never told for an amount of money, a vote could be delivered. At least to my recollection," he said.
That access helped them determine what was most important to each IOC member, Johnson told the newspaper. "For some it may be the athletes village," he said. "For some it may be the shopping they did when they were in Salt Lake City."
The BBC program said Salt Lake offered everything from champagne to cash paid into the bank accounts of IOC members and their relatives. "With the help of their agents, Salt Lake developed a simple strategy: Whatever an IOC member wants, the answer is yes!"
The program's findings have sparked the IOC to launch an ethics investigation and the London 2012 team to declare that they have "acted properly and ethically" throughout their bid. The IOC will choose the host of the 2012 Summer Games next year.
Johnson told the Deseret Morning News that no one should be surprised that the controversy over the bid process continues. The IOC ousted 10 members and enacted a series of reforms intended to prevent another bid scandal, including banning members from visiting bid cities.
Both Johnson and bid leader Tom Welch were tried on federal felony charges in Salt Lake City last year. Midway through the trial, U.S. District Court Judge David Sam threw out the government's case, saying it offended his sense of justice.
"I don't believe the bid process has changed," Johnson said. "I don't see what the IOC can do to change the process. It's a lobbying effort. I think they need to be more forthright that it is a lobbying effort. . . . For anyone not to realize that is naive."
A spokesman for the BBC said the program may air in the United States on cable's BBC America in the future, although no decision has been made. More information about the program, including video clips, is available on the network's Web site, www.bbc.co.uk.
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