The Olympic Council of Ireland has just announced the appointment of Grant Thornton to conduct an independent review of its handling of ticketing arrangements for the Rio Olympic Games.
Grant Thornton is a partner of Athletics Ireland in the popular Corporate 5K runs that take place across August and September. It also has a five year deal with UK Athletics and is a main adviser on next year’s IAAF World Athletics Championships in London.
It is intended that the review will be concluded by Monday, 10 October 2016 and it will be given to Judge Carroll Moran to consider as part of his State inquiry deliberations.
The terms of reference of the Grant Thornton review, which will be carried out by the Grant Thornton Forensic Services team, are as follows:
1. To review:
(a) The policies, procedures, processes and practices adopted by The Olympic Council of Ireland (including its subsidiaries and/or agents, hereafter referred to as OCI) governing the receipt, distribution and sale of tickets (and associated revenues) allocated by the IOC/organising committee to OCI for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and.
(b) The policies, procedures, processes and practices, adopted by OCI, governing all accreditations allocated by OCI for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
(c) The implementation of those policies and procedures, and the actual processes (including any procurement process and any contract awarded by OCI, including but not limited to any contract awarded to Pro10 and THG) and practices (including any resale of any tickets as part of hospitality packages), in the case of the accreditations and tickets allocated to OCI for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and associated revenues received by OCI:
(d) Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, to review:
(i) the appointment of Pro10 Sports Management as OCI’s authorised ticket reseller for Rio 2016;
(ii) the manner in which Pro10 dealt with OCI ticket allocation;
(iii) interactions between Pro10 and THG in relation to OCI’s ticket allocation;
(iv) OCI’s interactions with THG;
(v) the manner in which OCI dealt with any ticket allocation directly to it;
(vi) the manner in which OCI dealt with the local organising committee with reference to ticketing and accreditation; and
(vii) OCI corporate governance issues arising with reference to the matters above.
2. Having reviewed the above matters, to prepare a report setting out the findings and recommendations of the review, which will be given to Judge Carroll Moran.
As part of the Grant Thornton review, submissions will be invited from athletes and their families on their experience of ticketing allocation and availability arrangements for Rio 2016.
The OCI concluded the announcement by stating that it is committed to a review of its wider corporate governance arrangements and will set out its intentions in this area in due course.
