Reacting to the continuing reports on running of the G4S Olympics contract, Paul Kenny – general secretary of the GMB – said: “The constant attacks on G4S management are having a demoralising impact on thousands of the company’s workers who are striving to deliver security on the ground, both for the Olympic Games and on other contracts around the country.”
Kenny continued: “It’s also apparent that some workers contracted for the Olympic Games are being turned-off by the adverse publicity.”
Importantly, Kenny went on to state: “The GMB is worried by reports from several areas that frontline GMB members working for G4S who were looking forward to being part of the Games and wanted to deliver the security contract are being subjected to, and affected by, comments and taunts and this is damaging their morale. There are thousands and thousands of people doing their best and they should have our support.”
In conclusion, Kenny explained: “There will be a post-mortem after the Olympic Games but, right now, for the sake of the G4S workers on duty at the Games and elsewhere we need to emphasise the positives and get on with the job.”
Forthright comments from the Public Accounts Committee
Margaret Hodge MP, chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, has suggested that the Home Office “needs to get a grip” on LOCOG and G4S as a matter of urgency.
In publishing the Committee’s report on preparations for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Hodge stated: “As the world’s eyes turn to London, we wish every success to all the many organisations involved in making the Games happen, but the chaos which has emerged over the security contract was predictable and undermines confidence in those responsible for managing the Games.”
The Committee’s report has been produced on the basis of evidence derived from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Hodge continued: “There;s now a last-minute scramble to make sure there will be enough security personnel on the ground. In evidence to us before Christmas, all those concerned gave assurances that the contract could be met despite more than doubling the number of guards before the ink was dry on the original contract.”
The MP is concerned that “no credible explanation” has been given for “an astonishing twelve-fold hike in management costs” from GB pound 10 million to GB pound 125 million, while “G4S still has not been able to deliver”.
“Now the troops are having to be drafted in,” explained Hodge. “The Home Office needs to get a grip on LOCOG and G4S urgently.”
Olympics post-mortem in September
Hodge continued: “We still don’t know just how many security guards will actually be delivered, or whether G4S will face any penalty. We will carry out a post-mortem in September.”
Either way, Hodge and her colleagues are “not happy” with how the DCMS has engaged with this Committee.
“Legitimate monitoring of implementation has been an unnecessarily frustrating process, characterised by a resistance to giving us clear and consistent information and a readiness to depart from proper ways of conducting public business.”
Hidge stated: “We have faced considerable difficulty in pinning down just how much the Games is costing the taxpayer and how much risk there is.”
In conclusion, the chairman of the Committe of Public Accounts opined: “A big concern is that the Department has no intention of producing a single auditable account for the Games, drawing together both the costs within the Public Sector Funding Package of GB pound 9.3 billion and those outside. Such an analysis must be produced.”
