Olympic budget
25 Jan 2007 - LP
The celebrations of 2012 days left to the London Olympic Games a few days ago were overshadowed by the publication of a critical Commons Committee report. MPs (mainly Labour) criticised the planners for poor management of the games' finances.
The cost of the delivery has increased from £2.4bn to 3.3bn. This is a result of the planners not thoroughly thinking through the budget before they submitted their bid. Now the government wants taxpayers to foot the bill.
The public should not pay more for the incompetency of the financial managers. The government itself should take the responsiblity for not having a sound budget for the bidding process. Private projects could never be successfully finished if they had the same attitude towards their financial planning.