Rio City Government Confirm Discussions With Rio 2016

(ATR) The Rio municipal government tells Around the Ringsthat for the first time it is negotiating with Rio 2016 over money promised by the Paes administration.

A spokesperson for Mayor Marcelo Crivella told ATR that it is currently "analyzing the contracts for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games." No other details were provided.

The Crivella administration is grappling with debts left behind from the administration of Eduardo Paes. After Rio organizing officials said there was not enough money to host the 2016 Paralympic Games, the city, state and federal governments of Brazil stepped up to provide funding. The Rio city government pledged $48.2 million (R$150 million), but organizers only received $9.64 million (R$30 million).

The money from the city given to Rio 2016 was used to pay off travel grants needed for smaller National Paralympic Committees to travel to Brazil.

According to reports from Estadão São Paulo, Rio 2016 had a deficit of $42.4 million (R$132 million) as of December of last year. Rio 2016 spokesperson Mario Andrada confirmed the number to ATR, but said the current deficit is around $37.6 million (R$117 million) after some contracts were paid off.

Andrada says he expects the budget to be closed "sometime this year," and that negotiations remain ongoing with different levels of government. Andrada confirmed that the state government has paid its obligations to the organizing committee, which a spokesperson for Governor Luiz Fernando Pezão confirmed to ATR.

Despite outstanding payments, Rio 2016 has sought to minimize the implications of the ongoing accounting. Rio leaders said at the end of the Olympic Games that any contributions from governments would account for around one percent of the total budget. It is not unusual for an organizing committee to take up to a year to close its books following an Olympic Games.

IOC President Thomas Bach said repeatedly that public money would not be used for the organizing committee budget for the Olympic Games, even though city, state and federal money was needed to stage the Paralympics. The Rio organizing committee was in charge of one combined budget covering both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"If we still have [to pay R$ 117 million] and the city government failed to pass us [R$120 million] you see that we don’t have a big problem," Andrada said to ATR. "If the government had fulfilled its obligation on time we wouldn’t have a deficit."

Rio 2016 president Carlos Nuzman has been meeting with federal and city leadership to discuss the deficit and how to balance the books. ATR reported that he met with Brazilian President Michel Temer last month to discuss Olympic Legacy. At the same meeting, Nuzman and Temer discussed potential funds needed to pay out outstanding debts.

ATR also understands that Nuzman sat down with Mayor Crivella a month before the Temer meeting to discuss outstanding debts. Since that meeting Rio 2016 has had "three technical meetings" with municipal leadership to discuss kickstarting legacy for Olympic venues.

Rio City Hall is in charge of one venue in the Olympic Park, Carioca Arena 3. That arena finally opened to the public on May 7, albeit in limited hours. City Hall must also find an operator for the Deodoro Olympic Park. Most recent updates from Crivella’s administration to ATR show that the park still is without an operator. It has been closed to the public since the contract with the previous operator expired in December. Deodoro was supposed to hold miles of urban green space, hiking trails, and a public pool in the canoe slalom venue. The latter piece of legacy was deemed so important to public health that former President Dilma Rousseff was scheduled to open it, until the Zika crisis forced her to cancel her appearance.

Written by Aaron Bauer

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