Olympic Park Legacy official suspend..WH Sue Spurs

[Macmoish]

Wonder if it will change anything?

Guardian

Olympic Park legacy official suspended over West Ham clash of interests

Company director had been working as a consultant for east London football club during stadium bid which it won

An employee of the Olympic Park Legacy company has been suspended after it was discovered she was working as a consultant for West Ham United during the Olympic stadium bid.

The woman, who is not being named, has been suspended with immediate effect while the potential clash of interests is investigated.

The OPLC board, in charge of securing the future of the Olympic Park site, voted 14-0 in February to make West Ham United the first choice to move into the £486m stadium. The club was in a head-to-head contest with Tottenham Hotspur.

A statement from the OPLC read: "It has come to our attention that an employee of the Olympic Park Legacy company has been undertaking paid consultancy work for West Ham United FC.

"The company had no knowledge of this work and no permission was given to undertake it. This individual had no involvement whatsoever in our stadium process.

"The individual concerned had declared a personal relationship with an employee of West Ham United FC when she joined the organisation and we therefore put robust measures in place to ensure our stadium process was not compromised.

"The stadium team has been based at our law firm Eversheds' offices in the City and only the stadium team had access to information about the bids.

"As soon as this new information came to light the company took immediate action and launched an independent investigation.

"The employee has been suspended pending the outcome of this."

West Ham also released a statement, stressing their belief that the bidding process had not been compromised.

The statement read: "We have become aware of inquiries being made in respect of a lady who has undertaken work for West Ham United on a consultancy basis relating to the Olympic stadium project.

"Having learned of the inquiries, we have undertaken an initial internal investigation.

"We have established that the work that was carried out was not connected in any way to the bidding process for the Olympic stadium, but procurement project management thereafter.

"We are of the firm view that the integrity of the bidding process has not been compromised.

"We consider that the bidding process was robust and believe that remains the case."

The decision to award the Olympic stadium to West Ham is still subject to possible judicial reviews. The OPLC moved the base for the Olympic stadium bidding process away from its east London headquarters to its lawyers' offices in central London.

It is believed that this precaution has given the OPLC confidence that no information could be discovered, even accidentally.

This week Tottenham went back to the high court to continue their bid for a judicial review of the decision to award the Olympic stadium to West Ham.

Last week Judge Mr Justice Davis rejected Spurs' and Leyton Orient's challenge for the stadium. The north London club now have the chance to make a case in an oral hearing at the high court.

www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jul/01/olympic-park-legacy-official-suspended

[maudesfishnchips]

bet barry hearne will want this null and void

[Macmoish]

Strange!

"Tottenham's dirty tricks exposed"
www.kumb.com/story.php?id=125445

"West Ham to sue in 'cash-for-stadium' row"
www.kumb.com/story.php?id=125446


BBC - West Ham legal action over 2012 stadium claims

West Ham United are taking legal action against Tottenham Hotspur and The Sunday Times over allegations about the Olympic Stadium bidding process.

West Ham said they were treating the claims "with the utmost seriousness".

It comes after an Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) employee was suspended when it emerged she worked for West Ham during their bid to use the stadium in London after the 2012 Games.

West Ham said they were "certain of the robustness" of their successful bid.

A West Ham spokesman said: "West Ham United can confirm the club are taking legal action in relation to allegations made in today's Sunday Times.

"We are certain of the robustness of our successful bid for the Olympic Stadium."

Consultancy work

On Friday it was revealed that an OPLC director had been suspended on full pay after it emerged she had been undertaking paid consultancy work for West Ham.

The director, later named by West Ham as Dionne Knight, had declared "a personal relationship" with a Hammers employee when she started at the OPLC, but on Thursday she told the legacy company of her work at the club.

The OPLC said she was being suspended while any possible conflict of interest was investigated.

The OPLC board voted 14-0 in February to back the Hammers as first choice to move into the £486m stadium after the Games. The OPLC and West Ham said Ms Knight had no involvement in that decision.

West Ham said they had already carried out an investigation into the woman's role with the club.

West Ham plan to retain the running track after moving into the stadium and create a 60,000-capacity arena for football, athletics, concerts and community use.

Last month, attempts by Tottenham and Leyton Orient to get a judicial review of the OPLC's decision in favour of West Ham were rejected.

Spurs' plan had involved knocking down most of the structure and rebuilding it without the running track, instead rebuilding the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14005191

[Macmoish]

Paul Kelso/Telegraph

West Ham payments to Olympic Park Legacy Company director of concern to ministers

Ministers are closely monitoring allegations of inappropriate payments made by West Ham to a director of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, after the bitter public row over the future of the Olympic Stadium escalated yesterday.

The Government is alarmed by revelations, first exposed on Friday, that an OPLC director was paid £20,000 while moonlighting as a consultant for West Ham, and has sought reassurances about the OPLC’s processes and the decision to award the Olympic Stadium to West Ham.

The revelation will ramp up the pressure on ministers and the OPLC to reconsider the decision to award the stadium to West Ham, which is already facing legal challenge from defeated bidder Tottenham.

West Ham issued an angry statement yesterday denying that the £20,000 “consultancy” payment made to Dionne Knight, the OPLC’s director of corporate services, was improper and revealing they were opening legal proceedings against Tottenham and The Sunday Times following publication of details of the payments yesterday.

The strongly-worded statement accuses Tottenham of behaving “illegally” and is an indication of how serious the dispute between the two rival clubs over the £500million stadium has become.

On Friday the OPLC suspended Knight for failing to declare that she had been conducting consultancy work for West Ham in relation to their plans to convert the Olympic Stadium for football after the Games.

Knight, who is paid a salary of more than £80,000 by the taxpayer-funded OPLC, is the girlfriend of West Ham director Ian Tompkins, who has been responsible for shaping the club’s successful bid for the stadium and subsequent conversion plans. The relationship was declared when Knight started working for the company.

West Ham were selected by OPLC as the preferred bidder for the Olympic Stadium in February after a contentious bidding war with Tottenham, but it has emerged that Knight was being paid by the club for consulting on the procurement programme for the stadium before the final decision was made. West Ham insist that the payments and the work produced by Knight was legitimate and related to procurement rather than any information relating to the stadium bid process.

On Friday, OPLC said that it was conducting a review of its procedures but that it was confident that its stadium tender process had not been compromised by Knight’s work for West Ham. Knight had declared her relationship with Tompkins to the OPLC when she joined the company but had not revealed that she was moonlighting for West Ham.

Yesterday, the OPLC declined to add to its existing statements, in which it insisted that the stadium bid process had not been compromised.

Knight and Tompkins have both been suspended by their employers pending full investigation of the claims.

Tottenham have launched legal action seeking judicial review of the bidding process, which they claim was flawed, biased and in breach of European law, and on Friday they were granted permission to seek full disclosure of a deal between West Ham and Newham Council, which has agreed to provide a £40  million loan to finance the stadium conversion. Knight is a former employee of Newham Council.

According to The Sunday Times, details of the financial relationship between West Ham and Knight were uncovered by private investigators hired by Tottenham, who are alleged to have accessed private records including bank statements. West Ham said yesterday that the investigators had obtained the information “illegally” and that they were taking legal action.

Tottenham declined to comment on the allegations that they had employed private investigators, and sources claimed the club had not spoken to The Sunday Times.

West Ham claim the work undertaken by Knight was legitimate and related to the Europe-wide tender for procurement on the stadium. Sources said yesterday the work was legitimate, of good quality and received at a “competitive rate”. One source suggested the work conducted by Knight would usually have cost six figures.

In a statement West Ham said: “West Ham United are taking legal action in relation to allegations made in today’s Sunday Times. We are certain of the robustness of our successful bid for the Olympic Stadium.

“The newspaper’s statement that Tottenham employed the investigators who obtained private information illegally is one we are treating with the utmost seriousness and no doubt data protection and prosecution agencies may also do so.

“The only wrongdoing here is by those who have broken the law and obtained private information. It would appear that no stone has gone unturned trying to find a way to undermine our bid including apparently targeting the 14 Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) Board members who had voted in our favour.

“The suggestion of ‘secret cash’ in the Sunday Times article is absolutely and categorically denied. The OPLC has confirmed that Ms Knight had absolutely no involvement in the bidding process and we repeat that secret cash was not paid to her. Her work was very transparent and the bidding process was never compromised. The Legacy Stadium Partnership, including Karren Brady who is named in the offending article, has not paid any member of the OPLC for any information in relation to the bid process, and has not received any unauthorised information from the OPLC or any other source.”

A spokesman for Newham Council added: “Both West Ham and Newham had been assured that the procurement exercise had been fully authorised. The work that was procured by West Ham was of significant quantity. Neither party has ever sought or received any advantageous information in regard to the stadium bid. Both West Ham and the OPLC will now conduct detailed, robust investigations and we will co-operate fully with both.”

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/8614212/West-Ham-payments-to-Olympic-Park-Legacy-Company-director-of-concern-to-ministers.html