The chief executive of G4S has insisted his company will still claim its £57million ($F161m) management fee for security at the Olympic Games, even though the company has presided over a "humiliating shambles".
Nick Buckles faced repeated criticism from a committee of MPs as he struggled to explain how the company had failed to fulfil its contractual obligations to provide more than 10,000 security guards for the Olympic Games.
That failure has forced ministers to assign thousands of soldiers and police officers to basic security duties. Mr Buckles told the Commons home affairs committee that his firm would meet all the Government's additional costs for those deployments, and was prepared to fund bonuses for troops assigned to Olympic duties if commanders thought it appropriate.
However, he made clear that he believed his firm was still entitled to its fee for managing the security arrangements for the Games. G4S holds a £284m ($F806m) contract to provide security staff for the Games, which includes a £57m "management fee". Challenged to waive that fee, Mr Buckles insisted it should still be paid.
"We've managed the contract and we've had management on the ground for two years," he said.
"We still expect to deliver a significant number of staff." Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the committee, told Mr Buckles his stance on the fee was "astonishing".