A report released Wednesday by members of Britain’s Parliament is raising fears over spiralling costs for the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
The 48-page report was produced by a Culture Media and Sport cross-party committee. It praised what it called “awe inspiring” work at the site of the Olympic Park in east London, but criticized the handling of the budget, saying the figures were “seriously outdated”.
While acknowledging that preparations were ahead of other host cities at the same stage the report highlighted sharply rising costs of the Olympic Park, the Treasury’s liberal contingency plan, and questioned the widely held belief that winning the bid for the 2012 Games would have a beneficial effect on grassroots sport.
According to Reuters the report said, “the vast majority still look forward to a successful Games but doubts have already emerged, both about the cost of staging the Games and about whether a lasting benefit can be achieved. We are very disappointed that the cost estimates have been found to be faulty so early in the process”.
Shadow Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson said, reacting to the report’s findings, that the Government was “incompetent” in dealing with the Games budget. In a statement he said, “the Olympics Minister (Tessa Jowell) needs to bring forward an honest and transparent budget as a matter of urgency. They have failed to rationalize the position on VAT and contingency, both of which should have been settled at the time of the bid”.
According to Accountancy Age the original estimates put the Games at 2.375 billion pounds but there has been increased speculation that the event will cost more than three times as much. In recent months an unexpected VAT bill of 250 million pounds has also hindered efforts to…combat rising costs.
The Department of Culture Media and Sport said it welcomed the report and would address the major points raised.
A statement released said, “Tessa Jowell is absolutely committed to transparency on the budget for 2012. This is the biggest public sector building project in Europe and, as you would expect, we are applying rigorous financial controls to ensure that every pound we spend is well spent. Some costs have risen but that is principally because of the importance of ensuring a long-term legacy from 2012”.
But according to a recent poll there is still a lot of public support for the Games. According to Continental Research 36 million UK adults are planning to watch the Games on television and six million want to attend the Games.
Louse Stacey, director at Continental Research said, “with five years and six months still to go there is lots of time for public opinion and support for the 2012 Olympic Games to be generated, but already feeling regard(ing) the impact on East London looks extremely positive”.
