Olympic chiefs promise to speed up payment

Olympic chiefs have launched a New Year crackdown on late payment across the 2012 site.

Leaders of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) have also ordered a main contractor on the job to remove a retention clause it was trying to impose on a subbie.

Main contractors are being called in for a series of meetings to ensure they are sticking to ODA contract conditions to pay major suppliers within 18 days.

The move is a bid to ensure firms working on the Olympics are paid much quicker than construction's norm of between 30 to 60 days.

Subcontractors being paid late on 2012 jobs are being urged to blow the whistle on bad payers.

An ODA spokesperson said: "As a responsible client, if a supplier is having difficulties we would like to know about it so that we can discuss it directly with the main contractor.

"Through our regular meetings and discussions, we are working closely with our contractors to help ensure smooth cashflow through their supply chains.

"Our contracts require our main contractors to pay their major suppliers in 18 days and we monitor this to ensure the payments flow through.

"As part of the London 2012 Construction Commitments, we have a no-retentions policy and require the same of our tier-one contractors. Recently, we had a minor retention clause removed from a contract between one of our contractors and a potential supplier.

"To minimise the potential vulnerability to insolvencies, we monitor the financial security of critical supply chain contracts and this includes payment performance."

One Olympic source said: "All this makes sense in the current climate because the last thing the ODA needs is a string of insolvencies across the site brought on by cashflow problems."