As some government spokesfucker said on PM this afternoon.
So when is it time to blame G4S for their fuckup and inability to deliver the security personnel they were paid for? Not to mention those who thought it a good idea in the first place to contract a private security firm for such a sensitive assignment? Because really, it’s typical that once again the public sector has to make good the failures of oh so efficient free market:
The G4S chief executive, Nick Buckles, has told MPs that he regrets ever signing the Olympic security contract that has turned into “a humiliating shambles” that has left his company’s reputation in tatters.
But Buckles made clear that he is not going to fall on his sword and resign his £830,000-a-year job before the Games are over and astonished MPs by insisting that G4S is not going to waive its £57m “management fee” despite accepting 100% responsibilty for the security debacle.
The G4S chief executive clearly dismayed MPs on the Commons home affairs committee by saying he still couldn’t guarantee that all the 7,000 security guards the company is contracted to supply will turn up on the opening day of the Games. He disclosed that a further 500 troops could be called up if the 3,500 put on standby last week don’t prove enough.
The G4S boss confirmed that his company will pay all the extra costs faced by the military and the police for replacing private security guards when they fail to be supplied, including accommodation. He also made clear that the company will now also consider paying £500 bonuses to armed forces personnel whose leave has been cancelled to cover for the Games.
Really, at this point what needed to happen was to a) yank G4S off this contract and b) replace their employees with proper police and such while c) billing them for the costs and not paying them for anything they’ve done so far. Preferably the few security guards they actually did manage to hire/train should be transferred to the olympic organisation itself. I really don’t understand why, since their head honcho can’t even say how many people they will have available, anybody is still counting on them to deliver anything.
It really is privatisation in a nutshell: take the money, fuck up, fuck off and let the public sector clean up your messes.
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