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alp227

(31,959 posts)
Sat Jul 21, 2012, 03:08 PM Jul 2012

G4S bids for prison contracts despite Olympics failure

Source: The Observer

Embattled security group G4S is bidding for contracts worth more than £2bn to run five prisons. The revelation is likely to trigger a furore among the company's increasingly long list of critics and renew the often feverish debate about the extent to which the private sector should run public services.

News that the army and police have had to be drafted in to provide security at the Olympics because G4S is unable to fulfil its contract to supply 10,000 stewards has triggered calls for the company's chief executive, Nick Buckles, to resign.

Last week, MPs on the public accounts committee expressed concerns that management costs associated with the contract had soared from £10m to £125m, prompting concerns that the taxpayer was not getting value for money.

Now unions are questioning whether G4S's failures over the Olympics should preclude it from running more prisons.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/21/g4s-prison-contracts-bid

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G4S bids for prison contracts despite Olympics failure (Original Post) alp227 Jul 2012 OP
Privatization strikes again! Lydia Leftcoast Jul 2012 #1

Lydia Leftcoast

(48,217 posts)
1. Privatization strikes again!
Sat Jul 21, 2012, 03:26 PM
Jul 2012

I've been hearing from translators and interpreters located in the U.K. that the Conservatives handed all court interpreting services over to one company, assuming that it would be cheaper and more efficient than testing and approving free-lancers to do the job.

Just one problem: the company didn't have very high standards and sent unqualified people to interpret. (Interpretation, especially in a court setting, is much harder than it looks. Not just any bilingual person can do it.) Now there are cases on appeal on the basis of incompetent interpretation.

Way to go, privatizers!

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