London 2012 Cost Due To Lack Of ‘homework’

The government’s handling of the Olympic bid has been criticised by the head
of the ODA. The escalating cost of the London Olympics is due to a lack of
‘homework’ before the bid was made, says the chairman of the body responsible
for delivering the Games.

Sir Roy McNulty, the acting chairman of the
Olympic Delivery Authority said that planning had not been done ‘deeply enough
at the beginning’, an error that resulted in estimates for the cost of London
2012 rising from £2.375billion to the current £9.3billion.

“One of the
things we learned the hard way over several decades (on major projects) was the
need to spend 5 – 10% of the total cost just to make sure you knew what you were
doing, to everything specified, and have all the details well pinned down,” said
McNulty, who was interviewed for Radio 4’s A Sporting Chance, to be broadcast
tonight at 8pm.

“It does suggest things weren’t significantly
understood. It needs a lot of time and study and investment,” he continues.

Lord Coe, who also appears in the programme, moved to distance himself
from the topic of costs, by saying that as chairman of Locog, the organizing
body, the budget for the ODA is not his responsibility.