Botched Job?

Last year's Olympics in Athens were memorable for a number of issues:

- The massive overspend

- The frantic last minute rush to complete the buildings on time, using East European labour

It seems, much like Banquo's ghost, that these issues are destined to haunt Greece for the coming years.

The overspend has put the Greek economy into a parlous state. Now, it seems, that in the rush to complete the infrastructure, that the completion of certain buildings may have been botched.

A report by Germanischer Lloyd, a quality testing and certification group, on the steel and glass roof above the main Olympic stadium in Athens noted a number of faults in the web-like construction above the 70,000 seater stadium.

The stadium cost $288M, 36% over budget, and was completed only within a few weeks of the start of the games.

It seems that the roof needed some repair work.

The government said there was no reason for concern. Deputy Culture Minister Fani Palli-Petralia said:

"This report was completed in February 2005 and, based on this, what (minor repairs) needed to be done have been done. The roof is safe and there is no problem as far as its stability is concerned."

That's alright then, isn't it?