alt A PROGRAMME due to be shown on BBC1 tonight alleges to have uncovered documents in which London 2012 officials claim they can do nothing until a budget for the Games is finalised.

 

Inside Out claim to have been shown an internal London 2012 document entitled 'Project GAB - a campaign to Get the Agenda Back' which says it says nothing else can get started without a budget being set and details concerns about the Games legacy to London as well as political interference.

The document also allegedly claims that other issues London 2012 officials believe are causing them concerns: 
 
• The shock resignation of Olympic Delivery Authority chairman Jack Lemley, who complained about "too much political interference"

• The lack of a decision on the future use of the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium

• Apparent inactivity on the Stratford site
 
• Cynicism about the level of UK-wide benefits

• That Sebasian Coe, the chairman of LOCOG, warns that the Games are becoming a "political football" and that bad headlines are making it "harder to raise funds in this climate".
Dr Will Jennings, a specialist in risk management for major events like the Olympics, told Inside Out, which is  due to be screened at 7.30pm tonight, that the original estimated budget of £2.4 billion was always likely to be too small.

 

"Given that we know that the Athens Olympics cost nearly £9 billion, I'd have thought that that was quite a significant underestimate, and I think that people at that time would have thought that too," he said.

 

The programme claims it has received information that shortly after London won the Games, the Government asked a high profile firm of accountants to take a look at the budget once more.

The programme said that very early on the Government realised the £2.4 billion would not be enough and figures closer to £4 billion were being talked about.
 
Professor Tony Travers from the London School of Economics told Inside Out: "I think deep within the Treasury they can have no idea what this will really finally cost."
 
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the lead Government office on the Olympics, said it will not comment until the new budget is released, which is expected to be next month.
 
A London 2012 spokeswoman said the document was simply a quarterly communications strategy outlining how to respond to negative press coverage sparked by Lemley’s departure.
 
The spokeswoman said the dossier was a "perceptions audit" rather than a list of problems. "Every single organisation involved in a project of this scale would have a robust plan such as this," she said.