The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee is facing an audit of its books by the federal government, CBC Radio has learned.
The Heritage Ministry has issued a call for tenders to provide Ottawa with assurances about VANOC management's preparations for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Ottawa will pay an auditor more than $75,000 to look into VANOC's operations over the past three years.
John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee, said an audit into Olympic preparations is nothing out of the ordinary.
(Chuck Stoody/Canadian Press)
In August, Olympic organizers received a $110-million cash infusion from the federal and provincial governments to cover cost overruns in venue construction. The new money brought taxpayers' expenditure on the construction to $580 million.
Vancouver Olympic organizers originally pegged the building cost at $470 million.
John Furlong, VANOC's chief executive officer, blamed the rising price of materials and a shortage of skilled labour for the skyrocketing costs.
The audit will reportedly check management controls, risk-management frameworks and the overall governance structure.
NDP Olympic critic Harry Bains says the audit is a clear sign that VANOC is in trouble.
"We need to clean house at VANOC and bring in people whose only interest is the B.C. taxpayers….," Bains told CBC Radio.
VANOC has already agreed to release quarterly financial reports, and spokesperson Renée Smith-Valade says the additional audit is just good bookkeeping — not a sign of the federal government's waning confidence.
"We see it as [the federal government] acting on the taxpayers' behalf to make sure that the money that is being put in is being spent in the places where they are, and that's good information to have and share with the public," she said.