Olympics Security bailed out by army..

Andy_L

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Any ideas why the military weren't used in the first place or at least for a bigger piece of it? I appreciate the call on resources for Afghanistan.

They are expensive compared to civillians, although that now looks "penny wise: pound foolish" :-)

The reserves would probally have needed to been called up &there really expensive to mobilise & would have been politically embarassing, becasue of the implication that the regulars have been cut to far and possibly embarassing for the Military when/if mass mobilisation failed calling the planned "new model army" into question

Having troops on the streets doing isn't really the British way you know, its something those damned Europeans do

youknowwho

Hey, don't forget. It's Tri-service, so RAF and NAVY also come into this. It's just the ARMY are bigger.

ash28

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Must say some of the questioning by the Parliamentary Comittee appears commercially naive.

Asking why people weren't recruited and in place for several months leading up tio the Olympics? For example.

Just wonder who would pay for that cast iron guarantee. Locog only seem interested in in paying £8.50 hour for staff whilst actually on site in the Olympic "window".

One MP suggesting that people in full time jobs may have given them up for the chance of a months work?

Others seemed surprised at the "Draconian" working practices such as only paying them for training days, paying for licenses and providing a free uniform if they actually completed their work.

G4S have screwed up starting with accepting the contract. They should have left it to someone else, either directly or pricing realistically.

The contract should never have been given to one company to start with - there should have been several firms supplying security people. It seems a bit naive of government and indeed of G4S (or more likely greedy) to think that one company could supply all of the security personnel for an event like the Olympics.

They probably got the contract because - a, they were the cheapest, b, they were the biggest and c, they were prepared to sign up to something they must have realised they would struggle to fullfil.

The trouble with using private companies for some work, like prisons, policing and the like is that, yes, we move away from state monopolies, but create private monopolies in their place.

The taxpayer is often left to pick up the bill for their failure.

The security at the Olympics for a lot of visitors will be the public face of the UK - the mind boggles.

Nikkster

Couldn't see that this had been posted (apologies if it had)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18887250

'A rock song released last year by security firm G4S extolling its own virtues has attracted ridicule in the wake of the company's Olympic security problems...'

BobQ

Its been reported that they won the contract by bidding 25% less than the others.

http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/public-sector/3370177/g4s-it-failure-root-cause-of-london-2012-olympics-security-debacle/

Surely heads must roll at G4S, but if true then surely the Government could not have expected them to deliver it for that?

grizzly1911

BobQ wrote: »

Its been reported that they won the contract by bidding 25% less than the others.

http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/public-sector/3370177/g4s-it-failure-root-cause-of-london-2012-olympics-security-debacle/

Surely heads must roll at G4S, but if true then surely the Government could not have expected them to deliver it for that?

I wonder what question were asked and what evidence gained to show that they could actually fulfill the contract if they were so far adrift from their competitors?

What comfort was provided around their JIT recruitment process.

AIUI the contract was renegotiated for the uplift in numbers and signed late 2011.

Apparently they are providing a good service at the Open.;)

Andy_L

ash28 wrote: »

They probably got the contract because - a, they were the cheapest, b, they were the biggest and c, they were prepared to sign up to something they must have realised they would struggle to fullfil.

ISTR hearing (poss on the Today programe?) that they were 25% cheaper than the next bid

CLAPTON

We seem to be entering a period of unjudicial trials by useless talentless drama queens, enjoying their 15 minutes of fame to grand stand to their constituents and the TV audiences.

How many of these MPs have every run a business or created wealth or employment. Most have fiddling their expenses as their sole business achievement.

Virtually every successful businessmen and entrepreneur will tell you that they made many mistakes in their career. Most were lucky enough to get away with it and go on an florish.

Of course it's necessary for public funds to be properly controlled and accounted for, but the personal vindictive attacts on individuals who have committed no wrong doing but have made a mistake is very bad form and totally counter productive.

In any major project stuff happens; things go wrong. In some cases they go wrong in a very public way; it that morally worse?

PaulF81

paulmapp8306 wrote: »

they WILL get LSSA, which starts 10 days from being away from family, and is a tiered system depending how many days you have sepnd away from home (in your career). Level one is just over £6/day. Level 2 is around £9 etc. .

Out of date. Now afer 7 days and the figures are slightly better. I am on around 13-14 a day on Level 3, level 2 was around 10.50.

PaulF81

Andy_L wrote: »

Theres aabout 10% of the army in Afganistan. Even, as you say, allowing for those about to go & those who've just come back thats less than a 1/3rd tied up. Considering its been their declaired main effort for the past 10 years why are they making such a balls up of manpower management

Overseas deployments, the regiments in germany, dont forget the mundane routine training that has been mandated by NATO that takes over 3 working weeks out per year. nately,
Its not just the army that are chipping in, the RAF and RN have significant personnel committed to this too. You are right to an extent wrt the army, there are a lot of hangers on at commands (think captain darling) that are due for the chop during Tranche 3 and SDSR 2015. Unfortunately, they will not chop the throbbers who do little real work other than self promotion.