LOCOG criticised by London Assembly’s Economy, Culture and Sport Committee for not being transparent
The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games was publically criticised by the London Assembly’s Economy, Culture and Sport Committee which has stated in its report that the processes adopted by the London 2012 Olympic Games organisers are not as
transparent as they should be.
Many aspects of the LOCOG have been brought into the limelight that are deemed to be unsatisfactory by the London Assembly but particularly, the process of ticket selling has been significantly pointed out as too secretive.
The LOCOG has been said to exploit the fact that it enjoys being a private company legally by claiming commercial confidentiality. However, as the LOCOG has been managing its cash flows by sizeable contributions from the taxpayer’s money, it is liable to
divulge its operations to the public to assure the taxpayer the proper allocation of his funds.
The chairman of the London Assembly Committee, Dee Doocey, commented on the matter in the following manner, “Locog’s legal status should not excuse them from the transparency and openness we expect in other areas of public life. It is completely unacceptable
that an organisation that only exists because of a huge investment of public money can hide behind its status as a private company to avoid questions it does not like. Locog is putting public confidence at risk by refusing to provide a complete breakdown of
how many tickets were available for each event.”
According to the committee report, the Olympic board as well as the Olympics Minister should make some of the hidden aspects of the London 2012 Olympic Games ticketing process clearer. The report has specifically mentioned areas such as quantities of tickets
sold, the pricing of each ticket according to venue and seating as well as the number of tickets that have been allocated to the sponsors of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The report gives the example of the Sydney Olympic Games that had made the majority of its operations transparent to the public as its organising committee had released the information. The LOCOG has been advised not to take on the cloak of data protection
and take appropriate steps.
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