Who'd have thought so?
It's hard to believe this, n'est-ce pas?
Olympic chiefs were accused of understating the true cost of the 2012 Games yesterday as it emerged that the bill for the aquatics centre was already four times higher than the original bid price.
The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) announced that the contract, which was awarded to Balfour Beatty, had risen from the 2005 price of £75 million to £303 million.
And this just doesn't ring true:
The figures come after soaring costs at most of the Olympic venues and have led to renewed fears that the £9.3 billion 2012 budget will be exceeded. Jack Lemley, the former chairman of the ODA, gave warning that the bill was now likely to be £20 billion and he claimed that Ken Livingstone and Tessa Jowell had been understating the true costs.I mean we all know that the Olympics is an example of superb financial management for which we will always be grateful and that every penny spent on it represents a superb investment for Londoners. Isn't that so?
How about a competition? We won't know the result until well after 2012, but there'll be a prize for the winner. You have to guess how much the bill will finally be.£20 billion? £25 billion? £18 billion. And the prize is very clever. The higher the winning pick, the larger the debt we will have to repay. It's clever, don't you think?
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david stuart
April 9th, 2008 1:35pmolympics means OPEN CHEQ BOOK
the architects and construction workers know it.
the gov cant hav us looking at M.F.I or DFS fittings.
the thing is--im not interested in olympics anymore.
MONEY/DRUGS/BACKHANDERS/POLITICS/ONLY THE GOOD(in the know)RICH get tickets.
Tim Worstall
April 9th, 2008 2:41pmWat Tyler's been saying £20 billion for the last 18 months. As he used to work at The Treasury I'll second that.
Ross
April 10th, 2008 12:59amHow hard is it to build an aquatic centre on budget? There should only be three steps, dig a hole, put a roof on it and then turn the tap on.
Nick Biskinis
April 10th, 2008 7:41pmWe'll be selling off our remaining gold reserves to pay for the Games (or at least to make the medals). Why is anyone surprised? The notion Britain - land of Terminal 5, the Northern Line and the Dome - could produce the best ever yet most cost-effective Games was a fantasy worthy of the Gods.
I seem to recall lots of laughter at the Athens Games - £6 billion cost (shocking!). £20 billion is rather a lot of money for a 2 week athletic events, especially as many of the competitors will be cheating. Mind you, there'll be lots of lucrative gravy train PR jobs paying a fortune - 'vision realisation manager' etc etc Some lucky people will be racing to the bank.
Roy
April 11th, 2008 7:05amCountries bidding and accepting the Olympic Games deserve all they get. Us ordinary guys know it's all a sham, but the intelligentsia, well, that's another story.