Organizers of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games say they have taken
concrete actions to ensure that preparations for the Games are free
of corruption.
"Auditing conducted by the National Audit Office of China has
found no wrongdoing in our preparatory work," said Gu Yueren,
director of the Audit and Supervision Department of the Beijing
Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
(BOCOG).
In addition, the office has found "no errors" with Gu's
department, which is responsible for internal auditing, and BOCOG
pledged to do its utmost to ensure that Olympics preparations
remain free of corruption.
An administrative wing of the BOCOG Supervision Commission, the
Audit and Supervision Department is responsible for supervising the
use of BOCOG's funds and materials as well as the performance of
its staff.
"At the beginning, we established a strict budget management
system, under which only the Finance Department had the right to
appropriate fund. As the preparation goes on, some departments have
been allowed to spend within their budgets," Gu said.
Gu said BOCOG has strict rules when it comes to expenses,
including reimbursements and fees paid for business trips and
various functions and receptions that the president, vice
presidents and directors attend.
The key task of Gu's department is to supervise the payment of
large amounts of money.
"We have drawn up management and supervision rules for the
payment of large amounts of money, and a special auditing group has
been established to deal with this," said Gu.
"We are also assisted in this work by the auditing center of the
Municipal Finance Bureau."
Another important task is the supervision of the procurement and
management of materials.
"In order to ensure the transparency in purchasing, we have set
up a logistics department to take charge of the management of
necessary materials for our preparatory work," said Gu.
"Each department is required to send their requisition to the
logistics department, which carefully review all of these
requests.
"So far, no wrongdoing has been found during the purchasing of
materials, and cost saving of 7 to 8 percent have been made as a
result of this internal control process," he said.
Gu said, a "clean and sunshine Olympic commitment" has been
worked out and staff has been asked to sign up to it.
According to this pledge, all BOCOG departmental directors
should ensure that their staff work in a fair and transparent
manner, and they will also be held responsible if any corruption or
abuses take place.
In turn, the directors could sign commitments with their
subordinate staff, pointing out that any substandard performance
will be reflected in the staff's personal files and they could be
prosecuted for serious offences, Gu said.
Marketing issues
The marketing program of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games,
especially the selection of the sponsors, is always one of the
major concerns from the public, who wonder if the selection process
is truly fair.
"Since the marketing program is one of the main sources of the
money for the preparatory work, we have taken several measures to
ensure the transparency and fairness in the selection process of
the Olympic sponsors," said Gu.
"From the bidding for contracts to the judging standards, as
well as the awarding process, staff from our department, and even
from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), will have to
participate in the procedure."
All categories of the sponsorships are decided by IOC and all
bidding documents received have to be judged by a panel that
includes experts and officials from the government departments
concerned.
"The marketing program has strict rules, and we have yet to
receive any appeals regarding the selection of sponsors," Gu
added.
New challenge
As preparations for the Games came to the key stage in 2006,
auditing and supervision work also faces up to new challenges.
"As the preparatory work is turning to the venues this year, 80
percent of the human, financial and material resources will be
relocated and put into use in the next two years," said Gu.
Gu said much more attention will be paid to the supervision of
key projects and key departments.
"In order to adapt to the venue operating system, we still will
have to research the new system, and our department will work out
the venue supervision plan and new auditing and supervising systems
will become operational next year," Gu said.
According to Gu, a series of measures will be taken in the near
future.
They include appointing a person to take the full charge for
each contract, with the person taking full responsibility for the
bidding procedure; signing of contracts by the legal affairs,
finance and auditing and supervision departments; inviting special
agencies to supervise functionary departments, such as the
technology department; and appointing financial directors to take
part in the key projects, such as the opening and closing
ceremonies and the torch relay.
(China Daily August 25, 2006)