Boa’s Moynihan Stirs Up 2012 Budget Row Again
British Olympic Association chairman Lord Moynihan has renewed the pressure on
the government over the London 2012 budget by stating that the Games still needs
tighter financial management and more transparency.
Following a few months of calm since the announcement of the revised £9.3bn
Games budget, the attack on the government and the Olympic Delivery Authority by
Moynihan, who sits on the London Olympic Board, is likely to stir the row up
again.
In a newspaper interview, Moynihan commented: ‘We don’t know what is included
in the budget and what isn’t – it’s clear that there is a lot of room for
improvement.
‘These are everybody’s Games so it is important we have the right controls
and they should be transparent.’
Moynihan, who was the Minister for Sport in the Conservative government of
Margaret Thatcher in the late 1980s, continued: ‘We should be aiming to be on a
par with a FTSE 100 company.
‘We need a clearly defined budget, a clearly defined cash flow analysis which
is regularly updated and a clear focus on the contingency and how it is
allocated to specific project lines in the budget.
‘These things may well be going on inside Government, but they should be
transparent.’
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport responded by saying there was a
high level of ‘openness within the board’.
The statement read: ‘It is wrong to suggest there is a lack of financial
transparency – either within the Olympic board or across the whole Olympic
project.
‘There is a high level of openness within the board, consistent with the
obligations and demands of those providing funding and commercial
considerations. Hugely rigorous checks are in place to make sure public money is
spent wisely and to achieve the maximum effect in terms of the legacy we all
want from the 2012 Games.
‘The National Audit Office’s most recent report in July said the budget
process has been thorough and assumptions made by the Government have been
informed by detailed analysis and expert advice.’
