Hampden finances 'worse than Dome'

The National Stadium was millions of pounds in debt

The financial management of the Hampden project was worse than that of the Millennium Dome, MSPs have heard.

The company in charge of rebuilding Scotland's national football stadium kept no records of payments for up to seven months.

Auditors were called in when the funding gap reached £4.5m in 1999, the Scottish Parliament's education, culture and sports committee was told on Tuesday.

It was not until the early spring of 1999 that we became alarmed

Mike O'Conner
Millennium Commission

The committee was hearing evidence as part of its inquiry into the problems which led to a multi-million pound rescue deal for the project.

The auditors were called in by the Millennium Commission, one of the core funders of the £60m scheme to rebuild the Glasgow stadium.

Director Mike O'Conner said the commission was aware of a constant funding gap during 1997 and 1998, but was given assurances by The National Stadium (TNS) that it would be met.

"It was not until the early spring of 1999 that we became alarmed because the gap began to grow dramatically," he said.

When the funding gap had grown to £4.5m by July of that year, the commission deferred a decision on a £3m grant increase and called in the auditors to investigate the problem.

"Throughout 1999, more funding problems started coming out of the woodwork - half a million here and half a million there," said Mr O'Conner.

"The extent of the financial mismanagement within TNS was such that it made it very difficult for us to act very quickly.

"We were not made aware of the total cost until we sent in our consultants to get a full picture. We depended on reports from The National Stadium.

"We looked to the Queens Park Football Club and TNS to have controlled the cost of the project and bring it in on budget and they were not able to do so."

He said that when the auditors were called in they found that TNS had not kept a record of payments for up to seven months.

A rescue package saved the project

Despite repeated questioning from MSPs on whether it should have carried out tougher monitoring, the commission insisted it had acted as soon as problems emerged.

And Mr O'Conner stressed that the work they had paid for did get done.

The stadium was saved from financial ruin last March after months of wrangling over its future.

The deal saw the Scottish Football Association take over the running of Hampden the following month and the stadium's debts of £5.75m were paid off by the project's co-funders.

The SFA has rented the stadium for an annual lease of £800,000 for the next 20 years, most of which will go to pay the debts of owners Queen's Park Football Club.

The association also took over management of the stadium from The National Stadium Ltd, a subsidiary of QPFC.