Olympic budget is a sign of massive financial incompetence from the Government

Hugh Robertson has commented on the news that the 2012 Olympic budget has almost trebled.

Hugh said: “The fact that the Olympic budget has almost trebled in just a year is a sign of massive financial incompetence from the Government. The two largest cost overruns, VAT and contingency, were perfectly predictable at the time of the bid. The tragedy is that the Lottery and the taxpayer will be raided further to pay for Gordon Brown's mistakes.

“In raiding the lottery for a further £675m to make up the shortfall, the Government will penalise precisely the clubs and small organisations up and down the country that were supposed to benefit from the Olympics.”

“The requirement to add project contingency has added £2.7bn to the Olympic budget, but why did the Chancellor fail to identify this cost when they signed off the original budget?

“If the costs can treble in just one year, despite assurances from Ministers about the robustness of the budget, what confidence can we have that the Government will not be back asking for yet more money in years to come? The key thing now is for the Government to put a full, open and transparent budget in the public domain so that everyone knows who is paying for what and when - and then stick to it. This will do more than anything else to restore public confidence in London 2012.”