Review of Expenditures of Funds Derived From Sales of Olympic Commemorative Coins

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the expenditure of funds received from the sale of Olympic commemorative coins by the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee (LAOOC) and the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) to determine whether LAOOC and USOC used the funds in a manner consistent with the purposes of the Olympic Commemorative Coin Act. The act provided that revenues from a surcharge on the sale of Olympic coins would go to USOC and LAOOC for the purpose of promoting and staging the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games and supporting amateur and Olympic athletic programs.

GAO found that USOC and LAOOC may: (1) retain interest earned on coin revenues because funds transferred to them by the Department of the Treasury in anticipation of revenues did not constitute grant advances; and (2) only expend the interest funds for purposes consistent with the act. GAO also found that LAOOC: (1) received about $36 million in coin revenues and earned interest of about $1.4 million on those revenues; (2) maintained separate accounting for the coin revenues but commingled the interest earned with other revenues; (3) remitted $10.8 million in coin revenues to USOC, as required by the act; and (4) expended its coin revenues in a manner consistent with the act. In addition, GAO found that: (1) USOC received about $33.9 million in coin revenues and earned interest of about $2.4 million on those revenues; (2) USOC commingled coin revenues with other receipts, but maintained separate accounting for those expenditures considered to represent the use of coin revenues; (3) USOC spent about $200,000 in coin revenues for purposes not specified in the act but reimbursed its coin fund account from other receipts; and (4) while USOC legally created the U.S. Olympic Foundation and transferred about $42.5 million in coin revenues to the Foundation, the Foundation was required to expend the funds in a manner consistent with the purposes of the act.