Scathing report on Rio Games’ White Elephants
RIO DE JANEIRO: A federal prosecutor looking into last year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics says that many of the venues “are white elephants” that were built with “no planning.”
The scathing report offered on Monday at a public hearing confirms what was reported several months after the Games ended. Many of the venues are empty, boarded up, and have no tenants or income with the maintenance costs dumped on the federal government.
“There was no planning,” federal prosecutor Leandro Mitidieri told the public hearing on the Olympics.
“There was no planning when they put out the bid to host the Games. No planning.
“They are white elephants today,” Mitidieri added. “What we are try- ing to look at here is to how to turn this into something usable.”
Rio de Janeiro spend about US$12bil (RM51bil) to organise the Games, which were plagued by cost-cutting, poor attendance, reports of bribes and corruption linked to the building of some Olympic-related facilities.
The Olympic Park in suburban Barra da Tijuca, which was the largest cluster of venues, is an expanse of empty arenas with clutter still remaining from the Games. The second largest cluster, in the northern area of Deodoro, is closed despite plans to open it as a public park with swimming facilities for the mostly poor who live in the area.
Patricia Amorim, the undersecretary for sports in the city of Rio, said highly publicised plans were on hold to dismantle one arena and turn the remains into four schools. The arena was the venue for handball.
“It will be dismantled,” she said. “We are just waiting to know whether we will actually have resources to build these schools on other sites, or whether we will dismantle it and wait for the resources to come. Our schools need to be reformed and that’s our priority, not new schools.”
Former Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes, the moving force with the International Olympic Committee behind organising last year’s Olympics, is being investigated for allegedly accepting at least US$5mil (RM21mil) in payments to facilitate construction projects tied to the Games. — AP