Paris—The president of France’s national audit office Pierre Moscovici said on Tuesday the cost to the public purse of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games could be around three billion euros.
In December, the organizing committee, which is running the games and is largely privately funded but is receiving some public money, increased its budget by 10% to 4.4 million euros (4.7 billion dollars).
That is the same as Solideo, a partly publically-funded company, responsible for building facilities and infrastructure has estimated its work will ultimately cost. It is receiving 1.87 billion euros from the public purse.
Moscovici told the French Senate’s Culture, Education and Sport commission that his estimate of a final public bill of “around three billion euros” included government expenditure on the Games and on security, health, and transport.
He said currently the total was 2.4 billion euros with 1.3 billion euros from the national government and 1.1 billion euros from local authorities.
“The Games often suffer budgetary drift which puts a strain on public trust,” Moscivici said as he presented a report on the Olympics. But, he added, for Paris “We have not seen any significant slippage.”
The Games begin on July 26 next year.