The winning group, which stands to earn £400m after securing the contract to monitor the building of Olympic facilities, has been accused of getting a head start in the bidding process.
Three months ago, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), the body charged with building infrastructure for the event, chose a group known as CLM to become its “delivery partner”, helping oversee the enormous project.
CLM consists of the American consultant CH2M Hill, the British-based construction group Laing O’Rourke and the project manager Mace. It was picked after a long selection process that started in May with a short list of four.
Now, it has emerged that CLM’s Mace had people working within the ODA — while the bidding process was under way. None of the other consortiums had staff within the authority.
The four groups were judged not only on price, but also on their “cultural fit” with the ODA. In the selection process, the private-sector consortiums had to show the ODA that they could work well with the authority.
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The three defeated groups refuse to criticise the selection process publicly. But members of two of the unsuccessful bidding consortiums have quietly voiced their concerns that Mace, as part of CLM, was given a vital insight into how the ODA worked and the thinking of key individuals in the authority.
One said: “A large part of the selection process was about finding out whether the ODA could work with a delivery partner over a period of six years. CLM clearly had an advantage by having had people inside the organisation.”
A spokesperson for CLM said: “We created strong Chinese walls, including no contact between the two teams throughout the delivery-partner bid to ensure that there was absolutely no conflict of interest.”
David Higgins, chief executive of the ODA, confirmed that staff from Mace were seconded to advise the ODA on “buildability, logistics and planning” — and they were with the ODA while the bidding to become delivery partner was under way. But he insisted that they were “entirely quarantined” during the bid process and were prohibited from making contact with their company. They also operated from a separate office.
Sources within the ODA insist that fewer than 10 Mace staff were involved. Their salaries were paid by the ODA.
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The controversy has been sharpened by last week’s disclosure by culture secretary Tessa Jowell that CLM stands to receive £400m for its work for the ODA. At the time that bids went in, the contract for the delivery partner was estimated to be worth little more than £100m.
The new row is only the latest controversy stirred up by the appointment of CLM. Laing O’Rourke, headed by the reclusive building magnate Ray O’Rourke, gave money to the campaign to bring the 2012 Olympics to London — the only construction company to do so. The company has refused to confirm the sum involved, although some have suggested that it was as much as £1m.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport insists that the new £400m figure for the “delivery partner” includes money that has to be spent in “set-up costs” for the ODA as well as CLM.