In the wake of the review, G4S has accepted the resignations of David Taylor-Smith, chief operating officer and regional CEO – UK and Africa, and of Ian Horseman Sewell, managing director, G4S Global Events.
The report concedes that “the monitoring and tracking of the security workforce, management information and the project management framework and practices were ineffective to address the scale, complexities and dependencies of the Olympic contract. Together this caused the failure of the company to deliver the contract requirements in full and resulted in the identification of the key problems at a very late stage.”
Group CEO Nick Buckles will remain in post. While the CEO has ultimate responsibility for the company’s performance, said G4S, the review did not identify significant shortcomings in his performance or serious failings attributable to him in connection with the Olympics contract.
“G4S has accepted responsibility for its failure to deliver fully on the Olympic contract,” said G4S chairman John Connolly. “We apologise for this and we thank the military and the police for the vital roles they played in ensuring the delivery of a safe and secure Games.
“Our review of the company’s performance on this contract has been extremely thorough and, whilst the failures are largely specific to the very special nature of this contract, we will learn from mistakes made. We are taking actions in relation to both the management and governance of G4S to ensure we continue to deliver the highest standards of customer service and contract delivery across the group.”
Other findings of the review are:
– Although the Olympics was unique in terms of scale and complexity, the company was capable of fulfilling the contract; the issue was one of delivery
– Although G4S has management, structures and processes that have proved highly effective in delivering its regular business, it did not recognise these structures and processes needed augmenting for the Olympics contract
– The successful execution of the Home Office/LOCOG contingency plan, including deployment of additional military and police, together with a substantial contribution from the thousands of G4S employees who worked alongside them, led to a safe and secure games
– Learning lessons from the Olympics contract, G4S will implement actions across its entire business, including more rigorous risk assessment for new contracts and improved contract take-on processes and project management. Board oversight will be enhanced including review and approval of contracts where annual revenues exceed GB pound 50m.
In other moves, Richard Morris, currently group managing director of G4S Care & Justice Services in the UK, has been appointed CEO, UK region. And In an apparent move to bolster its UK government business in the wake of the Olympics failure, Kim Challis – who currently runs a portfolio of UK commercial and government businesses – will take on direct line management responsibility for all government businesses in the UK as CEO, G4S Government and Outsourcing Solutions.
The group executive will also be strengthened with the appointment of a group chief operating officer, who will work closely with the CEO, with responsibilities to include a focus on operational procedures, risk management and quality customer service and delivery. The group COO role will be an external appointment.