The Province

PASSING THE BATON

Rio officials bicker over stadium’s unpaid utility bills

- STEPHEN WADE

— The track-and-field stadium for this year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics was without power Monday with the city hall and Rio soccer club Botafogo blaming each other for unpaid utility bills.

In a statement to The Associated Press, city hall said Botafogo has been responsibl­e for the utility bills since May 2015. But the club told the AP in a statement the city government owed it money to pay water and electricit­y bills.

“We have to find out who is responsibl­e for the debt,” the club said.

The Brazilian website Globo Esporte, which is connected to the newspaper O Globo, said the unpaid bills totalled $340,000.

It reported electricit­y has been off since last week and said water was cut more than a month ago.

The website said two months of payments were in arrears.

Brazil is in the middle of a deep recession, forcing cutbacks to Olympic preparatio­ns. Organizers are trying to chop about $500 million in expenditur­es to keep the operating budget at $1.9 billion.

The cuts are reaching all aspects of the games, including reducing the use of unpaid volunteers.

The volunteers receive uniforms, meals on the days they work and transporta­tion to venues.

They must pay their own housing costs.

The Rio organizing committee said Monday it expected the stadium to be ready to host a test event in May, but referred questions to the club and city hall.

The stadium will be the venue for track and field and for group-stage soccer matches.

It was closed in 2013 to repair a sagging roof that was in danger of collapsing. It was reopened last year and plans are afoot to install the track for the Olympics in the next few months. The games open Aug. 5.

 ?? — AP ?? Rio de Janeiro officials said the Olympic track-and-field stadium had no power Monday because the
utility bill hadn’t been paid.
— AP Rio de Janeiro officials said the Olympic track-and-field stadium had no power Monday because the utility bill hadn’t been paid.

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