Consultants reviewing Games bid

The delay in getting Commonwealth Games numbers to Halifax council is due to the evaluation process, not any subterfuge, the bid committee says.

A meetingto update council has been pushed back by two weeks. With rumours circulatingthe cost of hosting the 2014 Games would top $1 billion, one councillor suggested the bid team was afraid to release numbers.

No one is reworking the proposed budget, a spokeswoman for the bid committee countered Wednesday.

Deborah Hashey said an independent team of consultants is evaluating the proposal and looking at a number of issues, including the economic impact of the Games should Halifax win the bid.

"This is normal that funding partners have to go through this kind of scrutiny and evaluation to make determinations about what their shares will be," she told CBC News Wednesday. "Then we'll act accordingly."

Provincial and municipal officials say the consultants were hired in early February after receiving the proposed budget. The assessment is expected to be completed by late March.

The final bid proposal has to be signed and ready to be presented in London in early May. Halifax is competing against Glasgow, Scotland, and Abuja, Nigeria.