FRIDAY IS crunch-time for G4S as the London Olympics get under way. The British company won a £284 million contract to provide 10,400 security guards for the event, but has come nowhere near meeting this staffing target. The shortfall forced the government to step in and provide at least 3,500 military and police personnel to bridge the gap.

There are also accusations that those who have been recruited by G4S are insufficiently trained.

Chief executive Nick Buckles couldn’t deny that the whole affair has descended into a “humiliating shambles” when he was grilled by a committee of MPs last week, but he failed to offer his resignation.

The question now is: will Buckles be able to pass the buck? He has certainly managed to survive his fair share of G4S scandals in the past: last October guards employed by the firm lost the keys at Birmingham prison, leaving prisoners locked in their cells for almost 24 hours. Shortly before that, G4S had to fire two employees who fitted an electronic monitoring device to a man’s prosthetic leg, which he removed in order to break a court-imposed curfew.

However, the latest debacle is on a different scale entirely and has seen about €900 million wiped off the group’s market value. But will Buckles be made to walk the plank or will he succeed in pulling off a successful damage control campaign?

G4S’s UK LinkedIn page recently advertised a position for a PR manager whose responsibilities would include dealing with crisis communications.

The ad was posted in June and removed from the site last Tuesday. That’s probably one vacancy Buckles truly regrets not filling more promptly.