Olympics body chooses designers at random

An organisation involved in the delivery of the London 2012 Olympics has admitted to selecting design consultancies at random for a tender.

Organisers say that due to a huge response from applicants to join a design and print framework for the Commission for Sustainable London 2012, a number of design groups were chosen anonymously at random.

An e-mail sent by Olympics tender organisation Compete For to consultancies that had missed out on the tender says, ‘We had an overwhelming response from 245 organisations.

‘Due to the number of high-scoring responses we have shortlisted a number of suppliers randomly from those who scored the highest mark in the questionnaire. This was done anonymously.’

The e-mail also states that the average score by shortlisted bidders was 100 per cent, and that other factors taken into consideration for rejection were the buyer’s essential criteria and the business profile of the applicants.

Michael Gough of Sparks Studio, which was one of the failed applicants for the tender, says, ‘Olympic finalists are selected on merit – and we thought the Olympic delivery bodies would do the same.

‘We just hope that this strange random selection process isn’t applied to the many hopeful cyclists, swimmers and gymnasts.’

The tender is to set up a roster to provide design and print support services for CSL, which oversees the sustainability of the Olympic Games, until 31 March 2011.

Contracts are due to be awarded on 3 April.

A spokeswoman for Compete For says the body was not involved in the selection process, and that the decision was taken by CSL.

CSL was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.