cobblers

They've had months and months and months to get the clearances sorted out. It's typical last minute implementation (keeps costs for G4S lower).

I've spent much of the past 2 years bidding with or against G4S for these other public sector contracts in a similar organisation to them. This is not unexpected.

Government procurement is s**te, and the contracts they use are s**te, toothless, and not fit for purpose (surprise surprise, because its done on the cheap using generic documents each time). These contractors are generally trying to run at such tight margins that everything is done as cheaply as possible. They will do the very bare minimum, and the cost of service failures is often actually priced in - they know they will not be able to achieve certain promises, but the penalties for failing are just factored into the price charged so that they never actually feel the pinch.

Whilst I am sure security clearance processing is an authority dependency in the contract, the simple fact is that G4S shouldn't be in this position and it should have been sorted yonks ago. That it hasn't been smacks of piss poor planning and piss poor project management by G4S and the procuring Authority.

Posted By: CWC, Jul 13, 12:43:30