TOKYO OLYMPICS CORRUPTION - PART 20

 Olympic Organizing Committee, government-made collusion or "allocation table" created in test tournament work

In the case of allegations of collusion over the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, it was found that multiple staff members seconded from advertising companies to the Games Organizing Committee were suspected of having prepared an "allocation table" by asking the advertising company about the desired competition venue before bidding began for the work of the test tournament. The actual orders were almost as shown in the table. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors' Special Investigation Department has obtained this allocation sheet and seems to regard it as evidence of order adjustment between vendors.

The Act on Special Measures Concerning the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics defines the Organizing Committee staff as "deemed public servants" and applies to seconded employees from the private sector. Suspicions emerged that the organizing committee of the ordering company was involved in the preparation of the allocation table, and the suspicion could be "official collusion" that was not limited to order coordination between vendors.

Suspected of collusion is bidding for test tournament planning work. The purpose of the test tournament is to identify management problems at the same venue as the actual tournament and make use of them in the main tournament. In 2018, the organizing committee conducted 26 competitive bids for each competition venue, and nine companies, including the major advertising company Dentsu, and one consortium won the bid for a total of about 530 million yen.

According to the officials, the organizing committee tournament management bureau was in charge of the operation of the test tournament, and the staff was seconded by employees of advertising companies and event companies. Some of these seconded employees have been listening to nine companies, mainly about their desired competition venues and bidding intentions, and preparing an allocation table. Each company had a different track record of competitions, and the table was updated from time to time according to the wishes of each company, and each time it was shared by each company.

Among the successful bidders are the group companies of the major advertising company "ADK Holdings" in which the former president and others were charged with bribery for bribing Haruyuki Takahashi (78), a former director of the organizing committee = charged with bribery = and the allocation table seems to have been submitted by ADK to the Special Investigation Department in the course of the investigation of the corruption case.

The Antimonopoly Act prohibits the adjustment of orders between vendors as "unfair trade restrictions," but if a public official incites bid rigging to a contractor or divulges secrets related to bidding, the Official Bid Rigging Prevention Law applies. The Organizing Committee, in which the Tokyo Metropolitan Government holds half of its capital, is subject to the Act.

In its official report, the organizing committee stated that the order provider for the test tournament was "determined based on rigorous and careful selection through general competitive bidding using the comprehensive evaluation method."

OFFICIAL LOGO OF TOKYO OLYMPICS

Is the Olympics Management Agreement a "Promise"? Advertising industry, the possibility of profit sharing

In the case of allegations of bid-rigging over the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, interviews with people involved revealed that there was a suspicion that the winning bidder for the planning work of the test tournament ordered by the organizing committee of the Games had decided in advance to be able to undertake the management of the Games as well. While the total commissioned cost for the planning work of the test tournament was about 500 million yen, the total management work of this tournament was about 15 billion yen. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors' Special Investigation Division and the Japan Fair Trade Commission believe that the advertising industry may have been adjusting orders in order to share huge profits from the beginning.

The purpose of the test tournament is to identify problems with the security system and management at the same venue as the actual tournament and make use of them in the main tournament. In 2018, the organizing committee solicited contractors to plan test competitions, and conducted 26 open competitive bids for each competition venue. As a result, nine companies, including Dentsu, a major advertising company, and one consortium won the bid. The total amount of successful bids was about 530 million yen, and the winning bid amount per bid was about 60 million ~ about 4 million yen.

According to the officials, the tournament management bureau was responsible for running the test tournament within the organizing committee, and the executives were seconded from Dentsu and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The bureau said that "experience in conducting international competitions and competitions is required" to operate the test tournament, and recruited contractors, mainly advertising agencies. However, in order to avoid a situation where the contractor for all the venues could not be decided due to the large number of venues, the winning bidder in the planning work of the test tournament made a "promise" that the contractor could also manage the tournament, and it was decided to facilitate the operation of the tournament.

In this tournament, 339 events in 33 sports were held at 42 venues in 9 prefectures, and in fact, the contractor who was in charge of planning the test tournament received an order for the operation of the same venue under a "special contract". This contract was a voluntary contract without competitive bidding, and the total commission cost to nine companies and one organization amounted to about 15 billion yen. In addition, each contractor also received orders for work such as "operation of test tournaments" and "measures against the new coronavirus" for each of the same venues under special contracts, and the total total consignment cost for all of them is said to be tens of billions of yen.

A former staff member of the organizing committee who knew the situation at the time of the tournament management bureau told an interviewer, "Even if the individual planning work for the test tournament was as low as several million yen, we could expect a contract of several billion yen for the operation of this tournament. It was not a 100% fair bid."