Companies behind the Warsaw National Stadium claim public authorities are manipulating data not to show that the construction cost hundreds of millions more than predicted. National Sports Center (NCS) supposedly has no budget reserves to cover costs and has been hiding it for months – report by “Rzeczpospolita”.

As Izabela Kacprzak of “Rzeczpospolita” reports, solving the errors committed during investment process is more of a criminal case than a business one at this point. According to her information contractors at Warsaw's Stadion Narodowy still haven’t received a total of about 400m zloty (or €93m) from NCS, though had been assured for months money will be paid.

Pressure with Euro 2012 was so big that none of us questioned the financing of extra features. Back then we thought there’s nothing more certain than governmental money. And now we’re the naïve losers here – says one of the owners of a big contractor that’s been waiting for months to get their share.

According to “Rzeczpospolita”, the largest stadium in Poland is already 250m zloty (€60m) over budget and Hydrobudowa (general contractor) claims another 120m zloty (€28m) needs to be paid for additional works that weren’t part of the initial contract (mostly installations like electric and gas systems). To that they add work done by subcontractors and extra costs bared by constructing companies due to, among other, work stoppages while structures were redesigned. A total of 400m zloty appears.

As contractors claim, payment problems started not weeks, but months ago, though no-one wanted to speak up, waiting for promised retribution. Construction companies accuse NCS of intentionally protracting procedures to avoid paying for as long as possible.

On Friday the board of Hydrobudowa sent out a public statement that reads: During last talks with NCS we were informed that the investor has almost no more resources to cover the work completed (could at best pay 5m zloty or €1,2m). We express deep concern over the fact. It turns out then that NCS submitted over 15,000 alterations to the project - which resulted in additional construction – without having the budget to cover expenses.