In today's tale of Olympic overspend: it seems a clutch of consultants, hired to wrestle the budgetary reigns and keep costs under control, have trousered some £87 million in the process.
According to a government report, the consortium CLM, a regular Olympic opportunist which has found work helping the Sydney and Beijing Games, was appointed to oversee a number of construction projects and ensure that costs were managed diligently. Yet that remit didn't preclude them from helping themselves to a generous slice of the £563 million spent by the ODA in the financial year to March.
It's not even as if they did their job well: the aquatic centre has already become infamous for its ballooning costs, which have swollen to four times the original estimate in just three years. The velodrome and main stadium are also bulging beyond the confines of their original budget.
That said, CLM can perhaps take credit that they're far from the greediest kitten at the teat. Olympic chiefs have lined their silk-suit pockets to the tune of £1.7 million over the past year, apparently taking the lack of fiscal jurisprudence as an opportunity to put a deposit down on that yacht they've long craved. Some directors received bonuses upwards of half a million pounds.
It's perhaps of little surprise that, on the whole, we're pretty darned sceptical about the legacy the Olympics will leave.
Image courtesy of RobBeer's Flickrstream via the Londonist pool
