At the beginning of March, the management of the Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Cojop) of Paris 2024 explained that it was engaged in seeking savings in a certain number of areas. In the home stretch before the event, the objective is not to exceed the spending ceilings appearing in its budget (4.4 billion euros) and, ultimately, to be able to balance the books.
This quest for savings led the organizers of the Games to approach some of the public authorities associated with the event. During a recent meeting, the Ile-de-France region was asked if it could cover the cost of transport, this summer, for accredited people (more than 200,000 officials, technical teams, athletes, journalists) . In the same way, the City of Paris was asked if it could respond to the requests for compensation that would be made by parking concessionaires in Paris, affected by the security measures and traffic bans.
Valérie Pécresse, the president (Les Républicains) of the Ile-de-France regional council, and Anne Hidalgo, the mayor (Socialist Party) of Paris, both rejected these invitations. Mme Pécresse did not want Ile-de-France Mobilités, of which she is president, to assume the bill. She considered that accepting this support would force her to find compensation so as not to unbalance the budget of the transport organizing authority.
Mme Hidalgo insisted on remaining within the framework defined in February 2022: for parking concessionaires located outside the areas where the Olympic sites are located in the capital, as well as for traders and local residents likely to be harmed by the security measures, it is up to the State and Cojop to process any possible compensation claims. When requested, the management of Paris 2024 did not respond.
Budgetary tensions
If the sums involved are not considerable in relation to the overall budget (8.5 million euros to 10 million euros in the case of the transport of accredited persons for example), the episode illustrates the budgetary tensions which accompany all last months before the Games. These are considered high risk, particularly because some expenses may increase or arise, and some expected revenues may also not materialize.
With this in mind, Paris 2024 management is carrying out ongoing work to identify proven or possible risks of additional costs or lower revenues. This leads it in particular to identify whether it will need to request the reserve for contingencies which it has in its budget.
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