This is hilarious. In my alerts, this just popped up and I had to share. Although if you listen to the words, I kind of doubt that the message had time to sink in with the G4S managers tasked with running the Olympics contract. lol –Matt
Check out the album here.
This is a really bad deal. lol I mean G4S really screwed up on this one, and this is one of those deals where all other PMSC’s and contractors are watching and wincing. I know I am.…
As to why this was such a screwed up deal probably rests upon a poorly written contract, and poorly managed recruitment/vetting effort–because of a poorly written contract. Everything from the appropriate amount of time to do this, to resources, and anything else that could have and should have been included in this contract. And pay is the one thing that the company should not have played games with. Check out this quote:
A former police sergeant who signed up to work for G4S at the Olympics has told how he withdrew his application over fears the recruitment process was “totally chaotic” and the firm was simply looking for cheap labour.
Robert Brown, who served for 30 years with Kent police, claimed he knew many other retired officers who had decided against working at the Games for the same reasons.
He said he had been given verbal commitments that staff would be paid £14 an hour, but that the contract he received said he would be entitled to £6.05 an hour for working outside the venues, and £8.50 for working inside the stadium.
“It is actually very sad,” Brown said. “I was looking forward to working at this historic event, but it would have been a waste of my time. The public needs to be aware of this.”
All I have to say is that if you mess with pay and break promises like that, then of course no one is going to sign up. When the final report comes out as to what exactly happened, I would be curious as to how many experienced security guys said no thanks to this one because of pay?
What is equally sad is that in one breath they attracted former police officers like the one in the quote and yet jerked him around on pay, and in another breath they sent this memo out looking for other police officers to help save the contract. Unreal….
G4S has got a £284m contract to provide 13,700 guards, but only has 4,000 in place. It says a further 9,000 are in the pipeline.
G4S sent an urgent request on Thursday to retired police asking them to help. A memo to the National Association of Retired Police Officers said: “G4S Policing Solutions are currently and urgently recruiting for extra support for the Olympics. These are immediate starts with this Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday available. We require ex-police officers ideally with some level of security clearance and with a Security Industry Association [accreditation], however neither is compulsory.”
The other one that came out was the vetting and recruitment of folks with no security background, and how chaotic and dumb that process has been. How embarrassing? I guess the G4S Facebook Page on this deal is littered with complaints from applicants on how terrible and inefficient the process has been. Like I said, the devil will be in the details of the contract signed and how this was managed, and the report that comes out on this will be very revealing. I understand G4S’s share price has been negatively impacted, and their reputation will take a huge hit because of all of this. How they deal with this crisis and the impact on the company will be interesting to watch.
If anyone from the company, or anyone that has experienced the recruitment process described has any insight as to ‘why’ this might have went so wrong is invited to share their comments below. –Matt
Edit: 07/12/2012– Apparently G4S had some issues with the computer program running the show. Kind of weak if you ask me, and that sounds like management trying to blame technology for their poor leadership and organizational skills. That and they under bid everyone else by %25. Here is the quote:
* An insider said the root cause of the problem with G4S was its internal computer system which had failed to calculate staff rostering.
* G4S won the security contract with Locog after submitting a tender at least 25 per cent lower than any other, which would have been hugely attractive to a British Olympic movement paranoid about going over budget.
Britain Adjusts Security Plans in Tense Countdown to the Olympics
By JOHN F. BURNS
July 12, 2012
With 14 days to go before the opening of the Olympic Games — and more than 2,500 days since the Games were awarded to London in 2005 — the British government acknowledged on Thursday that it had been forced to deploy an additional brigade of troops to save its security plan from falling apart.
To cries of “shambles” and “international embarrassment” in the House of Commons, the government of Prime Minister David Cameron said it had issued an emergency draft for an additional 3,500 troops, many of them just returned from Afghanistan — on top of 13,500 already committed for the Games — after broken commitments by a private security company. The government will now field a total military force of 17,000, who will outnumber civilian security details at Olympics venues by more than 2 to 1.
The government move came after what some infuriated Olympics officials described as overly hopeful and ultimately misleading exchanges involving organizers, the government and the G4S security company in recent months. This week, G4S officials finally conceded that the company was far behind — by a head count of several thousand — in its contract under the Olympics’ billion-dollar security plan to produce more than 10,000 fully trained, security-cleared guards.
“We have had some challenges on workforce scheduling this week, which we have discussed with Locog [the organising committee] and expect to resolve soon,” said the spokesman. “At no time was security at the Olympic Park or other venues under threat.”
G4S said the problems related to scheduling issues and getting people in the right place at the right time, but the firm said it was confident it would have sufficient trained and accredited guards by the time the games begin.
The company said it was always part of the contract that the security workforce would be in training until the last week of preparations. The Guardian understands that this was an issue that emerged during contract negotiations. It would have cost more to train the guards earlier. Under pressure not to further increase a security budget that has doubled to £533m, the government agreed to the “just-in-time” approach.
This is one of those classic cases where a company is approached to deliver a service that is right on the line of ‘possible/but difficult’. And of course the client wants to pay £284m and have the guards trained and delivered the last minute, versus paying the £533m and doing this right. Not a lot of room for error in this deal.
Now what has to happen is G4S has to deliver or they will be getting a black eye on this one. The client will be sweating this thing all the way up until the end, and will certainly get a black eye if this security is not delivered. I certainly hope it works out for all the parties involved, but usually when you compromise because of cost, you end up paying some kind of price in the end…. –Matt
London 2012: concern mounts over potential shortage of security guards
Private security firm G4S still needs to train and accredit 9,000 more guards, according to security sources.
Robert Booth
8 July 2012
G4S is contracted to supply 13,700 guards to protect Olympic venues.
The private security company being paid nearly £300m to guard the London 2012 Olympics has yet to fully train or accredit thousands of security guards needed to protect the games from terrorist attack, it has emerged.
Ministers are anxious that with three weeks left until the opening ceremony, only half the guards needed to guarantee fully staffed patrols of the entrances to venues and carry out other security duties are ready to start work.
The home secretary, Theresa May, has stepped in amid growing concern that additional military personnel may be needed to make up the shortfall. It is understood May called senior G4S executives on Friday after the firm failed to supply enough staff for patrols last week at venues in the Olympic park in east London.
G4S, the private security contractor hired to supply 13,700 guards, still needs to train and accredit about 9,000 guards, according to a security source familiar with preparations. Organisers believe G4S needs at least 19,000 security guards to fulfil its £284m contract, which requires 10,400 licenced guards and 3,300 students. The extra guards are needed as a buffer when staff fail to turn up or fail security screening. G4S will also manage 7,500 military personnel and 2,500 volunteers.
“We have been long-term optimistic about the police and short-to-medium-term pessimistic about the police for many years. Our view was, look, we would never try to take away core policing functions from the police but for a number of years it has been absolutely clear as day to us – and to others – that the configuration of the police in the UK is just simply not as effective and as efficient as it could be.”
I have seen this quote and others in several places and it is causing a little bit of a stir. But along the lines of what I was talking about with my prior post, there is some serious cost saving and efficiency benefits by privatizing this stuff. The problem is explaining the process to the public, and battling biased media or unions that only benefit from the current system.
This quote was the other one that I liked.
Taylor-Smith said “budgetary pressure and political will” were driving the private-sector involvement in policing but insisted that the “public sector ethos” had not been lost.
“I have always found it somewhere between patronising and insulting the notion that the public sector has an exclusive franchise on some ethos, spirit, morality – it is just nonsense,” he said. “The thought that everyone in the private sector is primarily motivated by profit and that is why they come to work is just simply not accurate … we employ 675,000 people and they are primarily motivated by pretty much the same as would motivate someone in the public sector.”
That is awesome he said this, and as a security contractor, I feel the same way. I am sure other contractors out there feel the same too, and bravo to Taylor-Smith for speaking his mind on this. –Matt
G4S chief predicts mass police privatization
Private companies will be running large parts of the police service within five years, according to security firm head
Matthew Taylor and Alan Travis
Wednesday 20 June 2012
David Taylor-Smith, the head of G4S for the UK and Africa, said he expected most UK police forces to sign up to privatisation deals. Photograph: Guardian
Private companies will be running large parts of the UK’s police service within five years, according to the world’s biggest security firm.
David Taylor-Smith, the head of G4S for the UK and Africa, said he expected police forces across the country to sign up to similar deals to those on the table in the West Midlands and Surrey, which could result in private companies taking responsibility for duties ranging from investigating crimes to transporting suspects and managing intelligence.
The same thing that applies to the US, is being applied to the UK. Contractors are an essential element to raising an army quickly, or maintaining the one you have. It ensures that the soldiers you do have, are in fact fighting forces and not just cooks or range maintenance folks. You can also build up that support force, or quickly tear it down, and there is no legacy costs like pensions to worry about.
Now the thing that I am curious about is the ‘inherently governmental’ debate happening places like parliament, think tanks and committees. How much will the British allow contractors to actually do when it comes to the gun related contracts in the future?
One thing that is definitely giving a good show as to the effectiveness and capability of armed security contractors is the anti-piracy efforts of the companies right now. Armed guards on boats, along with the history of British contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, are all experiences that are adding to the debate of what contractors are capable of. Interesting stuff and we will see how the British military and leaders navigate this aspect of force. –Matt
Private contractors key to Army, says Philip Hammond
7 June 2012
The British army will have to rely more on part-time reserves and private contractors, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond is expected to say later.
In a speech to military experts, he is due to say the future will involve “thinking innovatively about how combat service support is provided”.
Under the Strategic Defence and Security Review the Army will shrink from 102,000 to 82,000 troops by 2020.
Mr Hammond says there will be “difficult” decisions ahead.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said the speech at the annual Land Warfare Conference in London will give some clues as to how this rebalancing will be achieved, ahead of a full announcement later this month.
Mr Hammond is expected to tell an audience at the Royal United Services Institute there will be a need to use “more systematically the skills available in the reserve and from our contractors”.
Our correspondent says: “A total of £1.8bn is to be invested in the reserve forces, with a focus on certain niche areas such as cyber warfare, medical and intelligence.”
Powered by WordPress