By Andrew Warshaw
July 5 – The Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) today launched an independent investigation into its “internal stadium procedures” following the suspension of its director of services, Dionne Knight.
Knight was sanctioned after it emerged she had carried out consultancy work, in a potential conflict of interest, on behalf of West Ham United – the club that won the bid to take over the Olympic stadium after next year’s London games.
The OPLC board voted 14-0 in February in favour of West Ham’s bid to move into the £537 million ($836 million) Stratford site to the detriment of rival bidders Tottenham Hotspur.
The future of the 80,000-seater venue has been a constant source of controversy, with West Ham promising to match the London organisers’ insistence on an athletics legacy and Spurs countering that only their bid could make the stadium viable in the long term.
In what has become a bitter public row, West Ham has confirmed that Knight carried out consultancy work for them but vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
Just to add spice to a saga that has cast a giant shadow over the 2012 Games, Knight is in a relationship with West Ham director Ian Tompkins, who spearheaded the club’s bid to move to the Stratford ground.
An OPLC statement said: “The Olympic Park Legacy Company has launched an independent investigation into its internal stadium procedures as a result of the allegations made concerning employee Dionne Knight.
“The auditors Moore Stephens have been appointed to carry out this investigation into our procedures.
“They have put together a team led by their specialist forensic unit.
“We are also investigating the nature of the consultancy work that Dionne Knight undertook without our knowledge or permission.
“An independent barrister will be instructed to conduct the employment elements of this investigation.
“We will communicate the outcome of both investigations when the work is complete.
“We remain confident that the integrity of our processes has not been compromised.”
Disclosures about Knight being paid a consultancy fee by West Ham, reported in The Sunday Times, was apparently obtained by investigators hired by Tottenham Hotspur who have been rebuffed several times in their attempt to have the whole process of awarding the stadium to West Ham re-examined.
Spurs want to force the OPLC, the local Newham Council and London Mayor Boris Johnson to explain their decision to select West Ham and have made a fresh approach to the court after an initial attempt to secure a judicial review was rejected.
On Sunday West Ham said they were taking legal action against Tottenham and The Sunday Times but government ministers are reported to be alarmed by revelations that Knight was paid £20,000 ($31,000/€24,000) as a consultant.
Suggestions that Spurs acted in an underhand way to somehow gain the upper hand have drawn no comment from the club but West Ham have issued an angry statement denying that payments to Knight were improper and accusing Tottenham of behaving “illegally”.
The Sunday Times disclosures are nevertheless likely to increase the pressure on the OPLC to reconsider their initial decision even though Boris Johnson insists there was “no reason” why the case should be re-examined.
“The woman concerned made her relationship known to the OPLC and was immediately excluded from having anything to do with the bid process,” he said.
“Obviously they took steps, quite rightly, to exclude her of any involvement with the bid process and it now transpires there was a financial relationship – that is a matter that is currently under investigation.
“I have no reason to believe that this in any way will blow the decision off course.”
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