Olympics:Security giant G4S today admitted it had underestimated the task of supplying 10,000 guards for the London Olympics. Chief executive Nick Buckles confirmed the firm was facing a loss of up to £50 million for failing to meet its contractual obligations and admitted he did not know "categorically" whether all the security staff could speak fluent English.
Speaking publicly for the first time since details of the fiasco emerged, he said he was “very sorry” 3,500 troops had to be drafted in at the last minute to make up the shortfall. “We accept that we underestimated the task of supplying staff for the Olympics. We deeply regret that,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
G4S was initially contracted to provide 2,000 staff for £86 million but, following a review of security requirements last year, that was increased to 10,400 personnel while the value of the contract more than trebled.
However on Wednesday, with just over two weeks to go until the opening ceremony, it emerged the firm was not going to make the numbers and additional troops would be required. Despite having signed the initial contract in 2010, Mr Buckles said that he had only realised “eight or nine days ago” that there would be a shortfall.
“We are recruiting a large number of people, they are all working through a process of interview, two or three different degrees of training, licensing, accreditation,” he said. “Our review process was around the number of people applying for interviews, we had 100,000 of those, the number of people interviewed which was 50,000.
“So basically you work through that process of numbers and as they were getting ready for deployment over a period of time, it’s only when you get closer and closer to the Games that you realise that the number isn’t as high as you expect.”
Pressed during interviews, Mr Buckles was unable to say whether all the staff they had recruited could speak fluent English, saying it was a “difficult question to answer”.
“I am pretty sure that they can, but I can’t say categorically as I sit here today,” he said.
He disclosed that G4S now faced a penalty charge “in the range” of £10 to £20 million for failing to honour the terms of its £284 million contract with Locog. However he said that the bulk of the losses would come from having to pay the Ministry of Defence for the costs of providing the additional troops.
He apologised directly to the troops involved
some of whom have been forced to cancel leave and holidays after arduous operational tours in Afghanistan.