Where did it all go wrong?

The Guardian Diary has the answer:

So let's get this straight. Who at games organisers Locog was monitoring the contract with G4S? A fair and simple question for the home affairs committee chairman Keith Vaz to put. Here's the answer Locog's Paul Deighton provided in a letter to Vaz on Monday: "The contract was initially monitored weekly by the multi-agency Security Workforce Board. From January 2012, this body was subsumed into the Venue Security Delivery Board ('VDSB') [sic], a multi-agency body, meeting weekly, reporting directly to the Olympic Security Board, with members from the Home Office, GOE, Police, MOD, G4S and Locog. The VSDB monitored the G4S progress on the recruitment, training and accreditation of security guards for the Games and received weekly reports." There's more. "Locog established two bodies operating jointly with G4S. These bodies — the Contract Management Board and the Contract Performance Board, respectively — reported into the VSDB and initially met bi-weekly before moving to weekly meetings several months ago." In May, Locog also instituted weekly meetings with G4S "to review performance". Let's not forget the regular reviews by another Locog body, the Contract Review Board. And yet, with all those cooks stirring the broth, it all went wrong. Incredible, really.