BEIJING, Aug. 25 -- 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 also are also assisted in this work by the auditing centre 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 per cent 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 have 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 programme 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 programme 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 programme 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 per cent 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 meatures 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.

    (Source: China Daily)