The special rapporteur of the Senate finance committee, Éric Jeansannetas (PS), expressed “doubts” about the timing of delivery for several Olympic projects, citing a risk of budget overruns due to potential delays.
The completion of most of the nearly 70 Olympic projects is scheduled for the end of 2023, including the athlete’s village in Saint-Denis, the main Olympic facility. The company responsible for the delivery of these infrastructures (Solideo) has consistently reported that the schedule is on track. However, during the committee examination of the special report on the 2024 budget bill for the “Sport, Youth and Voluntary Associations” mission, special rapporteur Éric Jeansannetas mentioned “risks” weighing on the schedule for delivering the Olympic facilities, as reported by Le Monde. “We are not behind schedule,” Solideo assures.
“Last year, budget documents indicated that ‘most of the facilities will have been received by 2023, including the most important ones: the Arena Porte de La Chapelle, the renovated Stade de France, the Yves-du-Manoir stadium, and the Marina of Marseille.’ However, the delivery of all these facilities, except for the Yves-du-Manoir stadium, has been postponed to 2024. This is not reassuring,” he said. “As the special rapporteur, I simply pointed out that when there are delays, there can be budget overruns,” he added, “but I am not expressing concerns, I am raising doubts.”
“On the 70 projects entrusted to Solideo, no contractual date of availability with the organizers has changed. We are not behind schedule on the construction sites,” Solideo assured on Monday. “We have various steps between completion – which means the end of the works – and delivery to the organizers, which happens later. And it is this that may create confusion,” she suggested. Therefore, some projects will be completed by the end of 2023, but the delivery to the organizers will take place two to three months later, once the reservations are lifted. “No controversy”
The senators are scheduled to hear from the CEO of Solideo, Nicolas Ferrand, on November 15. “There should be no controversy,” assured Éric Jeansannetas. “If the projects are delivered within the next two months, then so be it.”
In its latest report submitted to parliamentarians in July, the Court of Auditors stated that some projects were behind schedule. “Certain projects, affected by delays (athlete’s village, media village, Arena Porte de la Chapelle, etc.), are subject to optimization of schedules and strengthening measures (extended working hours, increased workforce) to overcome them,” explained the magistrates in their report. “If these delays persist, the reception dates could be postponed by a few weeks, thus limiting the period for the resolution of reservations prior to the availability to the Cojo (Olympic Games organizing committee) and the implementation of temporary arrangements by the latter,” added the Court of Auditors.
Pierre Moscovici, the President of the Court of Auditors, assured in an interview with Le Parisien in July that he had not detected any “major risk” in the delivery of the facilities, while also remaining “vigilant” due to the absence of “margin in terms of the schedule.”
