BBC report focuses on G4S Olympics security contract

A fortnight ago, Info4security.com and Infologue.com jointly called for an independent review of the circumstances leading up to the last-minute shortfall of G4S staff, pointing out that the contract itself effectively created a ‘just-in-time’ approach to the deployment of security staff.

The original G4S contract was to supply 2,000 security staff and manage an additional 8,000 volunteers. In December 2011, though, LOCOG said it needed G4S to deliver 10,400 staff.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s The Report, Dr Mark Button of the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies at Portsmouth University said: “To put all your eggs in one basket for such a large event does raise some questions of those awarding the contract in terms of their knowledge of the wider security industry.

“If those who had awarded the contract had brought in appropriate expertise from the industry, then they would have said this is such a huge project that either you need to think about more contractors or you have to introduce a much more interventionist approach to managing the contractor, to ensure that what they are proposing to be delivered is actually being delivered.”

However, in response LOCOG told the programme that by the time [in December 2011] it was realised that 8,400 more security officers were needed it would have taken too long to have a new tendering process.

Dr Button’s comments echoes those he made to info4security following our call for an independent review. He said at the time:

“Providing 10,000 guards was bound to be one of the greatest challenges ever in the UK security industry. Using one contractor was a huge risk. The guarding contract should have been broken up into multiple contracts, spreading the risk. Putting all their eggs in one basket was the greatest folly.”

Read more about Olympic Security here

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