MPs blast G4S and Serco on housing deal
OUTSOURCING firm Serco yesterday faced a bashing from a committee of MPs over its management of an asylum seeker housing contract, less than a week after its ban on winning new government work was lifted.
Margaret Hodge, chair of the public accounts committee, grilled executives from FTSE 100-quoted Serco, peer G4S and smaller firm Clearsprings over a £620m contract to house asylum seekers across Britain.
MPs criticised the firms for failing to check each property, citing asylum seekers’ accounts of hellish conditions. “One of my feelings about Serco is that you undercut on price and then don’t understand the implications of that when you have to deliver the service,” said Hodge.
James Thorburn, managing director of home affairs at Serco, refuted the idea that they had cut costs at the expense of standards. But Stephen Small from G4S accepted his firm was at fault and said it would not have taken on some of the properties if it had checked them.
Serco and G4S are under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office relating to a prisoner-tagging contract. Serco was banned from winning new government work, but last week the embargo was lifted.