Spending Criticized

The Defense Department’s inspector general wants stricter controls on contributions the U.S. military makes to the Olympics.

Pentagon auditors say officials of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Paralympics and the military stretched “last resort” supplier rules so the military could provide three-ring binders, cellular phones, tents, furniture and even some refurbishing of Atlanta’s City Hall.

The inspector general, looking ahead to the 2002 Salt Lake City games, contends donations should be related to security and must not be available from other sources.

Atlanta also failed to speedily return or reimburse for the loss of $500,000 or so of borrowed military equipment - and the military failed to do much about it, the auditors found.

Details of the audit were reported Monday by the Deseret News, which obtained the audit report through a Freedom of Information Act request.