Unpaid Aussie firms may sue Commonwealth Games bosses

Sydney - Commonwealth Games organizers could face an expensive and embarrassing class action over their refusal to pay the international companies who put on the Delhi Games.

Games organizers, according to The Age, still owe nearly four million dollars to international firms who helped stage the Games.

However, Organizing Committee chairman Jarnail Singh announced last week organizers would not pay because of ''non-performance of contracts''.

Several of the companies out of pocket are Australian-owned or have Australian links, and have indicated they will pursue Games bosses for payment in full.

The Australian manager for Infostrada, Steve Dettre, said his company was still owed more than 600,000 dollars, and Delhi's refusal to pay more than four months after the Games was hurting his business.

''I think it's unbelievable that you can do all the work, and they just say 'we're not going to pay','' he told The Age.

''Well, we're not going to write it off as a bad experience, we're going to pursue however we can. There are companies all over the world who haven't been paid. We will talk to them and see what we can do as a group, either legally or through representations to the government,'' he added.

Infostrada ran all of the sports information in Delhi, including a Games media service, covering events and athletes' press conferences.

Its performance has been backed at the highest levels of the Games hierarchy.