MPs call for G4S to waive £57m management fee in wake of Olympic security fiasco

MPs on the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee have said that G4S (Group 4 Securicor) only has itself to blame for failings in providing adequate security at the Olympics as promised under a £237m contract.

G4S is the world’s largest security firm and the London 2012 Olympics was its biggest UK client. It has come to light that failures in management caused what MPs have declared a “humiliating shambles” that threatened to over-shadow the successful Games.

After poorly-trained and sparsely-numbered G4S personnel worked the Olympics, the Police and Armed Forces were drafted in to provide additional protection. Their efforts have been praised as saving the security of the Games.

From a report issued by MPs, three major concerns were highlighted:

• G4S should give compensation to the employees they trained but failed to use for the event.
• The Armed Forces should provide security at more public events.
• The Government should black-list companies who fail to provide adequate public service under contract.

MPs have requested G4S to forgo their £57million management fee after failing to provide the required number of security staff. G4S have released a statement saying they have already lost £50million from the Olympics and that the management fee is not profit but company expenditures that need to be recuperated: “It relates to real costs which have been incurred such as wages, property and IT expenditures,” they said.

Aimee Latimer