- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: G4S CEO admits Olympic failure to UK parliament
- Date: 17th July 2012
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JULY 17, 2012) (REUTERS) POLICE HELICOPTER FLYING OVER OLYMPIC STADIUM SOLDIERS WALKING TOWARDS STADIUM
- Embargoed: 1st August 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: United Kingdom
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: International Relations,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA7QNPRM49U7TCN1RP4I2L3RL45
- Story Text: The head of G4S admitted his management of the London Olympics staffing scandal had embarrassed the British government and left the world's biggest security firm's reputation in tatters as he faced the fury of MPs on Tuesday (July 17).
G4S has been at the centre of a political firestorm, and has lost about 650 million pounds (1 billion U.S. dollars) in market value, since it announced it could not provide the promised 10,400 Olympic security guards just two weeks before the Games.
Shares in the group fell another six percent as Chief Executive Nick Buckles appeared before a hostile parliamentary committee, and insisted that he remained in his post in order to focus on the Olympic contract.
"My first priority is clearly to make sure we deliver as many people as we can on this contract. That's got to be my number one priority. It's not about me, it's about making sure that we deliver the contract," said Buckles.
The embarrassing staffing admission has ignited a row over the British government's decision to outsource key work to the private sector and left ministers from the Prime Minister down trying to explain how the failure was allowed to develop.
"Many would take the view that the reputation of the company is in tatters" Buckles was told by one member of the influential home affairs select committee after being summoned at short notice to explain the debacle.
"I think at the moment I would have to agree with you," Buckles said, looking uncomfortable and sitting ramrod straight before lawmakers in an ornate wood-panelled room.
"We have had a fantastic track record of service delivery over many years in many countries but clearly this is not a good position to be in," he said.
The debacle has sparked damning headlines around the world just 10 days before the world's biggest sporting event begins.
One committee member told the G4S chief executive the British people "are sick of huge corporations like yours thinking that they can get away with anything, thinking that they can charge hundreds of millions of pounds to the taxpayer to deliver a service that has a crucial reputational importance to this country, as well as to your country, and then fail to deliver, and fail to tell anyone that's there's a problem until days beforehand."
To fill the gap left by G4S, the government has called up an additional 3,500 soldiers, many of whom had just returned from lengthy deployments in Afghanistan.
On Monday it emerged that, as well as extra troops, nine police forces had also been called on to help man venues after some G4S staff failed to show up to work.
"Over the last four days we've been informed that G4S staff have failed to attend Chesford Grange hotel and the city of Coventry Stadium and as a result we've had to supply regionally 150 officers to Chesford Grange and from Wednesday we're providing 210 officers regionally to here. From the West Mids point of view, that's around 120 officers here and around 70 at Chesford Grange to back-fill and pick up the pieces for G4S who have failed to attend," said Ian Edwards of West Midlands police.
Buckles said G4S would seek to compensate the police and consider a bonus for police and troops, prompting the chairman of the committee to ask if he was making up plans on the spot. A further 500 troops are on standby in case needed, he said, as he could not confirm that all those contracted by G4S would actually show up.
"It's a moving target, in terms of what we believe we can do. At the moment we've got 4,200 people working on the ground. Our expectation is the minimum we will deliver is 7,000 on the ground."
London 2012 officials insist their contingency plans, including the extra troops, will ensure a "safe and secure" Games. And while the inquest into the G4S fiasco will continue, Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson said it was also important that they remained focused on the job in hand.
"We always knew from the start that this was going to be quite a challenge. It is the largest security operation that anyone has ever mounted, and we all know why that's necessary given the international security situation.... I think as far as G4S are concerned, clearly it will be helpful to know some of why this went wrong, but actually the key thing is that G4S remain focused on delivering a safe and secure Games. They have a crucial part to play in this moving forward." - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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