Olympic officials get £2.8 million as redundancy payments

Redundancy payments offered to Olympic officials cost £2.8 million, according to the Annual Report and Accounts. The financial report states that Chief Executive Dennis Hone received a pay of £80,000, with £37,000 as pension.

“The Remuneration Committee decided to award a terminal bonus of 49% of his [Hone's] salary and to defer 50% of the bonus until the successful completion of the sale of East Village to QDD,” noted the report.

A spokesman of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) said that the London Olympics had been a ‘unique and challenging project and a great British success story’.

“We needed to recruit and pay for the best talent from the private and public sectors, requiring people in many cases to give up secure long-term jobs elsewhere, with no certainty of the project’s success or getting a job after the Games,” said the spokesman.

The spokesman, while justifying the Chief Executive’s remuneration, further added

“Like other staff, Dennis Hone received performance related pay, but this was far from guaranteed and was measured against tough performance criteria.”

source: BBC