IOC establishes task forces to tackle sports corruption

Multi stakeholder task forces, charged with tackling corruption in sports, have been established by the International Partnership Against Corruption in Sport (IPACS).

The platform, established by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in addition to a number of international sports organisations, government and inter-governmental organisations, has agreed to set up three groups to tackle pressing issues.

Each will be charged with “striving to improve governance and integrity in sport,” following IPACS initial launch at the February 2017 IOC International Forum on Sport Integrity (IFSI).

Three priority areas have been identified for each task force to centre its attentions, the first of which being “reducing the risk of corruption in procurement relating to sporting events and infrastructure.”

The second focus area determined by IPACS is “ensuring integrity in the selection of major sporting events, with an initial focus on managing conflicts of interest,” and finally “optimising the processes of compliance with good governance principles to mitigate the risk of corruption.”

IOC Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer Pâquerette Girard Zappelli said: “If you look at the recent major governance issues sports organisations have faced, the priority areas of our new task forces are very much on point.

“We need to go beyond declarations of goodwill and develop tools and practical solutions to help improve governance in sport and ensure integrity across all levels. The power of IPACS is the capacity to act quickly at the highest levels of sports organisations, governments, intergovernmental bodies and certain expert organisations, which all have a stake in this.”

The move to establish the three task forces came about during an IPACS working group, held at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) headquarters in Paris last month.

Each of the groups tackling the three key areas are to develop checklists and pilot projects, before reporting back to the working group in June of next year at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

At its launch IPACS established its mission statement as, “to bring together international sports organisations, governments, inter-governmental organisations, and other relevant stakeholders to strengthen and support efforts to eliminate corruption and promote a culture of good governance in and around sport”