The former chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority says Games costs will exceed government's 拢2.4bn estimate
Jack Lemely, the former chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, has warned that the 2012 Games in London will cost far more than the 拢2.4bn originally stated by the government.
Lemley said: 鈥淭he costs are going to go up on an exponential basis, and I鈥檓 just not going top be a part of it.鈥�
Lemley quit the ODA two weeks ago, after less than a year in the job, and returned to America. Frustrated about lack of progress, he said: "I went there to build things, not to sit and talk about it. So I felt it best to leave the post and come home."
His comments were made during an interview with his local paper, the Idaho Statesman, published on Tuesday. Causing further embarrassment to the ODA, more details of that interview were revealed in today鈥檚 Evening Standard newspaper, with Lemley warning that costs would spiral out of control.
He said: 鈥淚鈥檝e never walked away from a project, ever, until I retired from the London 2012 programme and it was so political that I think there is going to be a huge difficulty in the completion, both in terms of time and money. And it鈥檚 much more difficult because there is so much time being lost now.
鈥淚 think at the end of the day, if I鈥檓 wrong and they can do it all in their budget, then maybe I鈥檒l have some regrets about it鈥ut if the team can鈥檛 do it, I don鈥檛 want my reputation ruined. So I felt it was better to come home now than face it in five or six years.鈥�
His publicist, Perri Capell, told 好色先生TV: 鈥淛ack did not expect his Idaho statesman interview to be so widely disseminated and it's likely that any more comments won't be helpful to the Olympics.鈥�
