WASHINGTON -- An independent commission proposed on Thursday that the U.S. Olympic Committee -- described as a "constant source of embarrassment" -- answer to a much smaller oversight board under a permanent boss and report annually to Congress.

Commissioners ended their five-month review of the scandal-plagued committee by recommending a wholesale restructuring. Changes should be in place by January 2004, the year of the next games, commissioners said.

	“	The USOC is in disarray and in crisis. It needs to be reconstructed quickly and drastically. ”
		— Commission co-chairman Roberta Cooper Ramo

"The situation has deteriorated to such a degree -- and the time to the 2004 Athens Olympic games is so short -- that drastic measures to reform the USOC must be undertaken immediately," they said in their 70-page report.

The five-member commission, appointed by a Senate committee, said the new leadership should include an assembly taking in representatives from the participating sports, athletes, communities and the public at large.

Overseeing the committee should be a board of directors with nine members, down from 124, they said. The board would also have four additional members with limited voting rights.

The report said the committee should be required to report to Congress each year on its finances and work, that it adopt whistle-blower protections and that the new structure be reviewed every 10 years. The committee now reports to Congress every four years.

"The USOC is in disarray and in crisis," said Roberta Cooper Ramo, co-chairman of the commission and a former president of the American Bar Association who helped salvage the Olympics' reputation after the Salt Lake City scandal. "It needs to be reconstructed quickly and drastically."

Donald Fehr, head of the Major League Baseball Players Association and the other commission chairman, said: "We found no belief out there that things should stay as they are. There is a universal belief that things that needed to be done needed to be done quickly.

"Things began to unravel so much there was a widespread public demand for change."

Similar steps were proposed in an internal task force review appointed by the committee itself. That task force reported its findings in April.

The changes are meant, in part, to alleviate the friction that has long existed between the committee's paid chief executive officer and its volunteer president. The report calls for a strengthened role for the CEO.

The commission's report comes after months of study, public hearings and an outcry in Congress. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who helped set up the commission, has said the committee is a "dysfunctional organization that is held in low repute." He had no immediate comment Thursday.

The past year has seen the resignations of committee presidents Sandra Baldwin, who acknowledged lying about her academic record, and Marty Mankamyer, who was accused of working behind the scenes to oust chief executive Lloyd Ward.

Ward, accused of trying to steer Olympic business to his brother's company, also resigned.

Since Ward was first investigated for ethics allegations in December, eight committee officials have resigned.

Besides reducing the board, the internal task force also proposed eliminating the 23-person executive committee and reducing the number of committees from 23 to four.

Former Olympic champion swimmer Donna de Varona, NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol and former committee executive Harvey Schiller were other members of the independent commission.

Their report says: "While our athletes continue to achieve great success, the unfortunate performance of the United States Olympic Committee has been a constant source of embarrassment to the American public and to the marvelous athletes it is obligated to serve."

Members of the commission were chosen by McCain, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Sens. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo.

Campbell praised the recommendations and said that while it is important to make changes quickly, they must be done right.

Of all the turmoil, he said: "When you have so much money involved, it develops a culture of privileges." The Olympic committee "lost track of the mission to help our athletes," said Campbell, who participated in judo competition in the 1964 Olympics.