French senator ‘doubts’ timing of Olympic sites delivery
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Workers working on the roof of the Paris Olympic Aquatics Centre, Saint-Denis, near Paris.
PHOTO: REUTERS
PARIS – A senior French politician who oversees spending on the Senate’s finance committee told AFP on Monday that he had “doubts” about the timing of the delivery of several Paris Olympic projects, citing the risk of “budgetary slippage” due to delays.
Senator Eric Jeansannetas, however, said there was nothing “controversial” about his report.
Work on most of the 70 or so Olympic venues is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2023, including the athletes’ village in Saint-Denis, the main construction site for the 2024 Games.
Solideo, the company responsible for delivering the infrastructure, has consistently reported that it is on schedule.
However, during the committee’s examination of the special report on the 2024 finance bill for the “Sport, Youth and Voluntary Sector” on Tuesday, Mr Jeansannetas referred to “risks” weighing on the timetable for the delivery of the Olympic facilities.
In 2022, the budget documents stated that “most of the facilities will have been delivered by 2023”, including the renovated Stade de France and Yves-du-Manoir Stadium – the hockey stadium that was also a venue for the 1924 Olympics – as well as the basketball hub Arena Porte de La Chapelle and the marina in Marseille.
The delivery of all these facilities, with the exception of the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium, has been pushed back to 2024.
“This is not reassuring. As overseer, I am simply pointing out that when there are delays, there can be budgetary slippages. But I’m not expressing any concerns, I’m simply saying that there is a risk that the budget will slip,” he said.
Any delay could mean that there could be additional costs.
Solideo insisted on Monday that there were “no delays on any of the sites to be delivered”, adding that there was always a delay between the end of construction and the handover to the organisers.
“And it is this that can perhaps create confusion. Of the 70 works for which Solideo is responsible, no contractual availability date with the organisers has changed. We have no delays on delivery sites,” the company said.
Certain sites will still be completed by the end of 2023 but handed over only two or three months later, once everything has been checked.
Mr Jeansannetas said: “There’s nothing controversial about it. If the work is completed in the next two months, so much the better.”
He also added that the costs of security and transport are other areas that need addressing.
“It is likely that the state will have to mobilise internal security forces, the operational reserves of the police and the gendarmerie, as well as the military,” he said.
“The overall costs relating to transport are also not known. A complete review of the impact on the state budget of the tax exemptions granted to the Games has not yet been established either. These uncertainties are regrettable, as we reach the home stretch of preparation for the Games.” AFP