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G4S should forgo £57m Olympics fee

G4S should forgo its £57m fee for its failed Olympics delivery, to send a strong signal to the British taxpayer, say MPs.

The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee has published a report on Olympics security, and says a combination of flawed management information and poor communication with applicants contributed to the failures.

The Committee said G4S senior management had “no idea” how badly their operation was going until it was too late to retrieve it, and then gave false reassurances to LOCOG, the Home Office and other partners in the operation.

Keith Vaz MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “Far from being able to stage two games on two continents at the same time, as they recklessly boasted, G4S could not even stage one. The largest security company in the world, providing a contract to their 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 at best unreliable, at worst downright misleading. 24 hours before they admitted their failure, Nick Buckles met with the Home Secretary and did not bother to inform her that they were unable to deliver on their contract, even though he knew about the shortfall a week before.

“Because of the swift actions of the MOD, Home Office and LOCOG, London enjoyed a safe and secure games. The taxpayer must not pay for G4S’s mistakes. G4S should waive its £57mmanagement fee and also compensate its staff and prospective staff who it treated in a cavalier fashion. Their decision not to bid for Rio 2016 is the right one.

“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.”

A statement from G4S said the Board and management of the company had taken responsibility for the inability to deliver.

It read: “As explained by both G4S and LOCOG to the Committee, the £57m “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 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.”

In its report, the Committee recommended that G4S should pay applicants who successfully completed the training and accreditation but were not scheduled for work; for future events, armed forces personnel should be considered as possible security providers from the outset with proper reward; and the Government should maintain a central register of high-risk companies who have failed on the delivery of public services.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .