G4S must accept ‘sole blame’ for Olympics security staffing failure

The report on Olympics Security by the Home Affairs Committee states that a combination of flawed management information and poor communications with applicants and staff meant that G4S’ senior management had no idea how badly wrong the operation was going until such time that it was too late.

Some of the key recommendations outlined in the report are as follows:

• For future major events, Armed Forces personnel should be considered as possible security providers from the outset rather than as a back-up
• The Government should maintain a central register of ‘high risk’ companies who have failed in the delivery of public services in order to inform future procurement decisions
• G4S should forego its GB pound 57 million management fee in order to send a strong signal to the British taxpayer, its biggest client in the UK, that the company’s serious about making good for its mistakes
• G4S should make ex gratia payments by way of apology to those applicants who successfully completed the training and accreditation process but were not scheduled for work because of G4S’ management failings

An “eleventh hour fiasco”

“Far from being able to stage two Olympic Games on two continents at the same time, as they recklessly boasted they could, G4S could not even stage one,” said Keith Vaz MP, chairman of the Home Affairs Committee.

“The largest security company in the world, providing a contract to its biggest UK client, turned years of carefully laid preparations into an eleventh hour fiasco.”

The data the company provided to the Olympic Security Board was, according to Vaz, “at best unreliable and, at worst, downright misleading.” According to the Home Affairs Committee, it was down to the swift actions of the MoD, the Home Office and LOCOG that London enjoyed a safe and secure Games.

“The taxpayer must not pay for G4S’ mistakes,” insisted Vaz. “G4S should waive its GB pound 57 million management fee and also compensate its staff and prospective staff who it treated in a cavalier fashion.The Government should learn lessons from this experience and establish a register of high risk companies that have failed in the delivery of public services.”

G4S responds to the Home Affairs Committee report

Responding to the report compiled by Vaz and fellows MPs, G4S has accepted responsibility for its inability to deliver in full the Olympic security contract and apologised for this failure.

In a statement published on its corporate website, G4S said: “The company acknowledges and regrets the serious failing of not identifying the workforce shortfall at an earlier date. As soon as the company knew that it could not assure the full workforce numbers in the build-up to the Games, the relevant people at LOCOG and the Home Office were informed.”

On the subject of payments and penalties, G4S reiterated that it will incur a loss of around GB pound 50 million on the Olympics contract.

“The GB pound 57 million ‘management fee’ is not a profit. It relates substantially to real costs which have been incurred such as wages, property and IT expenditure. The final financial settlement is currently under discussion with LOCOG.

The statement continues: “G4S has a long-standing track record of delivering on Government contracts to a consistently high standard. Everyone connected with the company is extremely disappointed that G4S was unable to deliver on its full commitments on this contract, but this does not reflect the high standards G4S delivers continuously in its other work for the UK Government every day.”

Internal review by PricewaterhouseCoopers

G4S has commissioned a review to be conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in order to determine in detail what went wrong with the execution of the contract. The findings are due to be made public within the next ten days.

The company has also agreed a process with the GMB Trade Union for compensating candidates who completed training and accreditation but were subsequently unable to work at the Games.