Organisers of the 2012 London Olympic Games were on Monday facing more questions over their sponsorship deal with Dow Chemical following allegations of lack of transparency in awarding contracts.
Campaigners called for an inquiry into the tendering process claiming that Dow was given a £7-million contract for supplying a fabric wrap to decorate the Olympic stadium in East London after turning down a cheaper bid. They accused the London Olympics Organising Committee (Locog) of misleading MPs over the cost of the wrap.
The committee insists that Dow was awarded the sponsorship after a “rigorous procurement process with due consideration of its financial and reputational standing and its ability to deliver the best sustainable solution for the wrap.”
Dow's involvement with the London Games has been dogged by controversy over its links with the Bhopal gas tragedy forcing it to agree to remove all branding from the Olympic stadium following protests here and in India.
Barry Gardiner, MP and Chair of Labour Friends of India , has written to the House of Commons' Culture Media and Sport Select Committee, demanding a “thorough investigation” into the procurement process that led to Dow being granted the Olympic wrap tender.
In a letter to the committee's chairman John Whittingdale, he questioned Locog's claim that the deal with Dow resulted in a saving of £7 million. He said it risked damaging its reputation by giving the company such a prominent role in the Games.
“A simple Google search would have found these recent examples of corporate criminality from Dow. It raises serious issues about just how rigorous Locog's procurement process was. When you see Locog misleading MPs over the savings from the wrap, combined with Dow's dubious ethical record and complaints from other parties in the tender, you really do have to question the tendering process itself. I hope the Select Committee will now launch a full investigation into this issue. Locog have a lot of questions to answer,” he said.
A spokesman for a British textile company, which claims that its offer to supply the wrap at a cheaper cost was turned down, said the price agreed with Dow seemed to have been arrived at “without reference to any fabric manufacturers and accepted as fact by Locog from the outset.”
“Although not calculated in detail we are confident that the cost of the fabric solution we offer would give a saving of around 75%,” he said.
