The head of G4S today insisted he was the right man to make sure the firm delivered as many Olympic guards as possible, despite the on-going security debacle.
Nick Buckles, facing British MPs in parliament today, said he was sorry and deeply disappointed after the firm, which is running the £284 million contract for Games security, failed to meet its targets.
He is under pressure to quit his £830,000-a-year job over the fiasco, which has resulted in the emergency deployment of soldiers and police officers and seen £400 million wiped off the market value of G4S.
Asked by Labour MP David Winnick if it was a “humiliating shambles for the company”, Mr Buckles said: “I could not disagree with you.”
And asked if he agreed the reputation of G4S was in tatters, Mr Buckles said: “At the moment, I would have to agree with you.”
He insisted the firm has had a good reputation “over the years”, but added: "At the moment, it’s not a good position to be in.”
Mr Buckles said he told organiser Locog on July 3rd that his firm experienced a shortfall over the weekend, in part due to its scheduling system not working properly.
It was monitored daily but it was not until an Olympics Security Board meeting, chaired by Charles Farr on July 11th, that the firm said it was not going to meet its contract obligations.
Mr Buckles said G4S took on the Olympics contract to boost its reputation.
“Financially, it’s not a huge issue for us in improving our profit.”
But he insisted the £50 million loss the firm now faces was not insignificant, saying it was a “huge amount”, representing 10 per cent of its annual £500 million profit.
“It was a hugely important contract,” he said.
Mr Buckles added there had been “exclusive management focus on this contract for two years”.
It was a separate subsidiary within the firm, with a management team and a project board to review its progress every month, he told MPs.G4S is now aiming to provide a minimum of 7,000 security guards, Mr Buckles said.
He said it was a “complete and utter shock” when he was told on July 3rd, while on holiday in the US, that there would be problems delivering the contract.
He returned to the UK the same day, he said.
Asked about staff not turning up, he said: “Our normal show rate is about 90 per cent.”
But he said it was not an issue of people being told to turn up and not arriving.
“Our problem at the moment is a shortage of staff,” he said. We just don’t have the staff. That shortage is going to manifest itself from today to the Games.”
An internal memo from Mark Hamilton, the firm’s managing director of the Olympics contract, raised issues over its “just-in-time contract phrasing” in June.
The memo said it would have been better to have guards in place months in advance but this was “neither practical nor cost-effective”, the MPs were told.
Mr Buckles admitted that “in a perfect world” the staff would have been in place well ahead of the Olympics, but that was not what the contract stated.
The firm will reimburse police for all their costs caused by G4S staff not turning up, Mr Buckles said.G4S also failed to supply enough security guards for a cycling event in Box Hill, Surrey, this morning, the MPs heard.
Mr Buckles said a daily meeting was assessing where the shortfalls were.
Once the Olympics get under way, the firm hopes to give “three to four days’ notice”, he added.
A series of MPs on the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee referred to emails from members of the public who had applied for security jobs and then heard nothing for six months.
Mr Buckles said 100,000 people applied and “keeping track all the way through has clearly been a challenge”.
“This is a very unique contract,” he said. "It’s a completely different operating model.”
The G4S boss said the problem was the several months’ gap between recruitment and the Olympics starting.
Managers should have been informing him of problems along the way, “but they didn’t”, Mr Buckles said.
Tory MP Michael Ellis told him the public was “sick of huge corporations like yours thinking they can get away with everything”.
PA