2012 London Olympics Budget Issue

Hugh Robertson, sports minister has rejected all the claims made by the National Audit Office. According to the reports, expenditure will cross the budget for the upcoming Olympics and stated it as the ‘gloomiest possible picture’.

According to NAO, the real risk is regarding the overall budget of £9.3billion figure, which would not be sufficient for the upcoming Olympic Games and rigorous action is needed.

While addressing BBC sports minister, Robertson said, “I don't accept that £9billion is not going to be enough. I announced the quarterly results at the beginning of the week, and that the construction programme by Christmas will be 95% complete, and we still have half a billion pounds worth of contingency left. Given we started with £2bn worth of contingency you could argue we've worked through three quarters of that, but as I say 95% of the construction programme is now complete, so I think we're in a strong position. I wouldn't for a moment underestimate the difficulty of the task we're facing. Remember that in construction terms we have built [the equivalent of] two terminal fives [at Heathrow Airport].”

He further added, “We've a logistical operation to run the Games unequalled in this country, unless we undertake a major war, and we're staging 46 simultaneous world championships over a month-long period. It is an incredibly difficult project, but we've done remarkably well up to now, and I'm as confident as I can be we will bring this in on time and on budget.”

Later, Robertson has been suggested that he should take NAO seriously, as he replied, “Every single piece of expenditure comes over my desk, so we do take it incredibly seriously, and the NAO is there to highlight risks. But it generally tends to take a glass half-empty, rather than half-full view of all of this. I think reading through their report they have taken the gloomiest possible picture, but they are right to be cautious. However, I think we are marginally now in a better position than we have been at various stages in the past.”

Although the security bill has also been doubled to £533m, still Robertson said, “Security is, relatively speaking, the last piece of the puzzle. You need to have the venues constructed, and then crucially the competition overload put on top of that. The security was always going to be the last thing we did. In a sense there should be absolutely no embarrassment for anybody in government, or anybody organising the Games, saying we are paying whatever is necessary in order to deliver a safer and secure Games.”

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