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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The governor of Nagano, Japan, says he will push for more government inquiries into the Japanese city's excesses in its successful bid against Salt Lake City for the 1998 Winter Games.
Gov. Yasuo Tanaka launched his own investigation in an effort "to uncover the true facts behind the bid. Serious doubts had already been raised by many citizens about the activities" of the regional government at the time, Tanaka told the Deseret Morning News in an e-mail interview published Sunday.
The investigation group formed by Tanaka released a report late last year that found an "illegitimate and excessive level of hospitality" was handed out by Nagano during the bid, including $4.4 million spent on entertainment.
The Nagano Prefecture Investigation Group Report noted that nearly $544,000 in souvenirs were given to members of the International Olympic Committee -- an average of about $5,700 each, even though the IOC gift limit then was $200 per member.
Questions were also raised in the report about whether crimes were committed when bid records were destroyed and a signature was forged on a document needed to take a ceremonial sword valued at $13,000 out of the country to present as a gift to then-IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.
The Nagano governor said that while the investigation group "does not possess any legal authority, the discovery of proven facts has at least provided an answer to citizens' doubts and questions."
Salt Lake City lost that bid 14 1/2 years ago to Nagano in a close vote, but went on to be awarded the 2002 Winter Games. While there were always rumors about Nagano's lavish treatment of the IOC, it was Salt Lake that got into trouble.
Utah bidders were accused of trying to buy IOC votes with more than $1 million in cash, gifts, trips, scholarships, medical treatments and other inducements.
Unlike Nagano, which burned its bid records, Salt Lake documented everything. That information was used to prosecute two Salt Lake bid leaders, Tom Welch and Dave Johnson, although the federal government's case against them was thrown out midtrial by a Utah judge.
Tanaka was elected after Nagano hosted the Olympics on a pledge to reopen the investigation into the bid. "Of particular concern was the destruction of the accounting records ... (which led) to considerable general distrust," the governor said.
His investigation group appeared to have been able to piece together information on at least how much money was spent on the Nagano bid but, at least in the English abstract, not specifically what was purchased or who on the IOC received the largess.
Tanaka said via e-mail that he will see if the more powerful Prefectural Assembly, similar to a state legislature, "is willing to carry out further investigations, and also explore what kind of action citizens would take to express their will."
The IOC has expressed no interest in further investigation. "Events of a decade ago are history, and the IOC has drawn a line under the past," IOC communications director Giselle Davies said earlier this week in a statement.
Welch said in a recent interview that he didn't expect there to be any repercussions against Nagano as a result of the new report -- even though the Japanese city relied on public funding for its bid while Salt Lake raised money privately.
"What could possibly come from it? I don't think dollars were diverted from what they were supposed to be spent for, which was winning the Games," Welch said. "It's just a footnote or an asterisk in the process of what it took to be selected. To that extent, it's just history."
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
