The Olympics host selection process has been tainted by corruption allegations

JEAN-CLAUDE Ganga knows Salt Lake City well. He loves the city and its mountain backdrop so much he bought a property there in 1995 - and loved it even more when he later sold it for a reported US$60,000 (HK$464,000) profit.

The Congolese bureaucrat is used to the hospitality of Utah's natives. He was also the beneficiary of a US$50,000 gift - money which he said was to help starving children back home - and was treated to free hospital care when he got hepatitis. The city also paid for his mother's health care when she hurt her knee.

Mr Ganga, the 64-year-old former Congolese ambassador to China and the president of its national Olympic Committee, has also been looking forward, no doubt, to more Mormon hospitality in three years, when Salt Lake City plays hosts to the 2002 Winter Olympics. Unfortunately for him, it looks increasingly likely his invitation will be withdrawn.

Mr Ganga is a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), a 115-strong elite whose job is to select sites for each summer and winter Olympic tournament. He is also one of an estimated 13 IOC members who will have much explaining to do when the committee gathers in Lausanne in a week for a crisis meeting to examine the worst bribery and corruption scandal in its 100-year history.

Salt Lake City's Organising Committee (SLOC) and its city and state government have been caught up in an unfolding scandal ever since an IOC executive, Marc Hodler, made extraordinary allegations last month of corruption and vote-buying in the city's winning bid process.

The crisis has escalated to such a degree two senior SLOC officials have been forced to resign, the former head of the bid committee has lost his pension, Salt Lake City's mayor will no longer seek re-election, and the FBI is undertaking one of a number of probes into possible criminal misconduct.