Taxpayers gave £41m bail-out to Locog during Olympic Games

 
23 October 2012

Lord Coe’s Olympic organising committee Locog received a £41  million bail-out this summer, taking the total amount it received from taxpayers to about £1  billion.

The news is a setback to Locog’s reputation for financial management after it was lauded for putting on what many said were the best Games ever.

Critics have already accused it of not being financially transparent like other public bodies, despite taking such large amounts of public cash.

However, ministers insisted that the bail-out had been essential “in the wider interests of the projects” and said that in some cases the cash had been passed on to other public bodies such as Transport for London.

Sports minister Hugh Robertson said: “The key thing was to make this project work and by far the best way to achieve this, given the extraordinary progress made by the [construction agency] ODA, was to transfer responsibility to Locog. We said we would transfer money from the contingency to stand behind the wider project.”

It was intended that Locog would be solely funded from broadcast and sponsor revenues, but instead it received £1  billion in taxpayers’ cash for items ranging from venue security and transport to the cost of the opening and closing ceremonies.

In the three months to September, the Government transferred £41  million to Locog and a further £30  million was earmarked as a reserve figure for emergencies by the organisation.

The figures were revealed in the final quarterly report on the Games by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which also showed that the total bill for the Games came to £8.92  billion, £377  million under budget.

The accounts said that as well as Locog’s £30  million reserve, the Olympic Delivery Authority was holding a further £73  million in reserve.

The remaining cash will stay with the Treasury but Mr Robertson played down suggestions that it could be used to clinch a deal to convert the Olympic stadium for use by West Ham United.

Estimated extra costs of converting the venue have soared to £160  million, much of which would have to be spent on installing seats over the track.

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