Australian firm claims CWG dues

Chennai - Great Big Events, one of the world's leading providers of sports presentation services, will contest the 2010 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee's decision to withhold payment in excess of $100,000 for outstanding contract dues for services during the event.

Great Big Events is one of nine foreign firms to which the Organising Committee has withheld final payments due to alleged non-performance.

Last week, another foreign company, Infostrada Sports based in the Netherlands, had claimed that the Organising Committee owed it $618,000 towards providing media services for the Delhi Commonwealth Games.

Reacting to charges of "non-performance," Greg Bowman, Managing and Creative Director of the Australian company said in a press release Monday: "Our company has been responsible for the delivery of more than 55 major international sporting events including multiple Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games and World Championships, and in 16 years we have never once been accused of failing to meet the obligations of our contract."

 "At this point, we are still trying to establish what the basis for their decision is, given we only received very positive feedback at each stage of our engagement.

"Such commendation is shared by the international federations who have been vocal in their support of our overwhelmingly positive contribution to the Games.

"In fact, the only prior indication of any dissatisfaction with our performance, as far as we can tell, is through non-payment of our final invoice.

 "It seems ironic that we are listed alongside companies who like us, are widely acknowledged as the pre-eminent providers to the industry in their respective fields," the release said.

Great Big Events issued multiple contract notifications to the Organising Committee for repeated non-payment of invoices through 10 months of pre-production.

Following ongoing breaches of contract, Great Big Events' legal representatives issued a Termination of Contract notice to the Organising Committee two months prior to the Games, "effectively ending our relationship", the release said.

The terms of that termination notice "confirm that Great Big Events only sought to recoup outstanding monies for the work completed to the point of cancellation, and not for the remaining contractual term", it added.

On receipt of the notification, senior members of the Organising Committee re-approached Bowman to offer an assurance that outstanding monies would be paid immediately and in full, and a revised contract would be re-scoped for Games-time to address critical timeframes.

Great Big Events was re-contracted for Games-time services just 17 days out from the Opening Ceremony, the release added.

"Given our late procurement for Games-time services, we were forced to mobilise every resource available in the company to ensure that preparations of key materials were as advanced as they could be in an incredibly short timeframe.

"Great Big Events delivered work in excess of the parameters of our contract and therefore the commercial terms of that deal should be honoured in full," said Bowman.

Great Big Events "will continue to assist with the government-appointed audit enquiries, and trust that the findings of that investigation will conclusively support our case for imbursement", he added.