Olympic chief calls for budget checks

British Olympic Association chairman Lord Moynihan has claimed there is "a lot of room for improvement" in the financial management of the London 2012 Games.

Moynihan said tougher measures were needed to keep costs under control and that there had to be more transparency about the £9.3billion budgeted for the Olympics.

Moynihan said: "It is absolutely essential that rigorous financial controls should be top of the agenda. We should be aiming to be on a par with a FTSE 100 company. But it is clear there is a lot of room for improvement.

"We need a very clearly defined budget, a very clearly defined cashflow analysis which is regularly updated and a very clear focus on how cash is allocated.

"It is very important that not only do we have the right controls in place but they should be transparent. We just don't know what's included in the budget and what isn't."

There is already controversy over the cost of the Olympic stadium.

Members of the London Assembly were told two weeks ago that it would be £496million, 77 per cent more than stated during the bid in 2005.

The Government argue that the new figure is the cost in 2012 taking into account inflation, VAT and unforeseen extras.