SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ Salt Lake Organizing Committee President Mitt Romney says the public release of the "geld document," a secret dossier on IOC members that had been prepared during the city's successful bid to win the 2002 Winter Games, was the right thing to do.

"Under our laws and SLOC's policy of openness, all documents relating to the bid scandal will be public," Romney said in a statement released shortly after his arrival in Sydney for the 2000 Summer Games. "We will not in any way try to hide the past. Shedding light on what happened will ensure it does not happen again."

Romney's comments came a day after some IOC members vented their anger at being portrayed as corrupt and threatened to sue Salt Lake organizers over the document, which listed personal habits, loyalties and family needs of IOC members.

The document was compiled by Salt Lake bid leaders. The word "geld," which means money in German, was written next to the names of several IOC members.

The document, was retrieved under a subpoena in the U.S. Justice Department's grand jury investigation of the scandal. The memo was found on the hard drive of the computer of Dave Johnson, the No. 2 official in the bid and former deputy of the organizing committee.

It was released publicly four months ago.

Keba Mbaye, chairman of the IOC ethics commission, said Monday that the dossier "lists the names of practically all IOC members and indicates how to obtain their votes and favor."

Mbaye, a former World Court judge from Senegal, said there were legal grounds to sue for libel _ either by IOC members individually or in a class-action suit.

The notation for Mbaye in the document said "Salt Lake visit at all costs." Mbaye's reaction when the document was disclosed was, "I never went to Salt Lake City, so it didn't work."

IOC leaders, including Vice Presidents Anita DeFrantz and Richard Pound, and Director General Francois Carrard, have downplayed the notion of a lawsuit.

"To try and sue someone whose identify you don't know ... about a list that talks about possible prospects of avenues of approach to certain IOC members _ good luck with that," said Pound, a Canadian lawyer who led an internal inquiry into the Salt Lake scandal. "Who are you going to sue for what?"

Bid committee operations were led by former SLOC President Tom Welch and Johnson, who were charged in July with 15 felony counts of conspiracy, racketeering and fraud for providing more than $1 million in cash and gifts to IOC members.

Romney on Tuesday also denied claims that when he wrote IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch that he was releasing the document, he apologized for doing so.

"My letter to President Samaranch ... was in no way an apology for releasing the geld document," Romney said. "It was for the lack of notice given to the IOC regarding the document's release."

The document had been requested by Utah news organizations, but originally was withheld on the advice of SLOC's outside legal counsel because of its potential pertinence to the Justice Department investigation.

Romney released it after being informed that the federal attorneys had cleared SLOC of any criminal wrongdoing.

Romney's letter to Samaranch said state law and SLOC's open-records policy required immediate release. He also indicated SLOC officials knew reporters would get the document from other sources anyway, and trying to keep it secret longer would be seen as a cover-up.

Carrard told The Salt Lake Tribune that the issue resurfaced this week because some members had just become aware of the document and what had happened regarding its release.

(Copyright 2000 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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