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Ethics Investigations: Lessons Learned from the USOC Scandal (Ethikos) Ethics Investigations: Lessons Learned from the USOC Scandal (Ethikos) September/October 2004 - By Andrew W. Singer. An Ethics Officer of Olympian Proportions: Pat Rodgers and the USOC ScandalTo some in the business ethics community, Patrick Rodgers is a hero. Early in the decade he held a high profile position as ethics compliance officer at the scandal-plagued United States Olympic Committee (USOC). In 2002, he was called upon to investigate the organization’s chief executive officer, Lloyd Ward, who was alleged to have steered USOC contracts to his brother’s business. Rodgers did find a conflict of interest—a violation of the USOC’s ethics code. But when the organization’s ethics committee failed to discipline Ward, by a 16-4 vote in January 2003, Rodgers resigned from his post. It was a matter of principle. “It clearly, in my judgment, was a violation,” Rodgers told USA Today at the time. “It couldn’t be clearer.”The USOC was plunged into turmoil. Ethics committee members John Kuelbs, Edward Petry, and Stephen Potts also resigned. Senate hearings were held. CEO Ward eventually lost his job. Peter Ueberroth was brought in to restore stability to the organization. Today, Rodgers, a former chairman of the Ethics Officer Association (EOA), is retired from the ethics profession. He lives in Nevada, and is in the process of setting up a coffee business. An earlier scandalThere is some irony to all this. Rodgers was brought on board after an earlier USOC scandal in which bribes were paid to help secure the 2002 Winter games for Salt Lake City. (See ethikos, March/April 2001, “Learning from the Salt Lake City Olympics Scandal.”) In 2001, he spoke with ethikos about the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee, which was overseen by the USOC. That committee “had all the traditional things in place”—audits, ethics committees, and the like. “The problem was that none of it worked.”Reforms initiated after that first scandal called for Rodgers to report to the Olympic Committee’s CEO in ethics or compliance matters regarding USOC staff, and to the Ethics Oversight Committee for any issue involving the CEO. Full Article: http://www.singerpubs.com/ethikos/html/olympics.html |
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