G4S CEO Ashley Almanza Orders Company Review Over Olympics and Tagging Debacle

G4S' chief Ashley Almanza is ordering a company review to ensure a clean bill of health after the British government froze future contracts following the London Olympics and tagging debacle.

Ahead of the security giant's half-year results in August, Almanza will be digging deep to resolve issues surrounding the breach of its lucrative £284m (€328m, $429m) London Olympics 2012 contract, which saw the army being drafted in to make up for the shortfall of staffing.

In addition, only a few days ago, Britain's government also ordered a review into G4S and rival Serco's operations following an audit which uncovered erroneous billing for criminal tagging services.

A spokesperson confirmed to IBTimes UK that Almanza is doing a review of the company but is not making a comment about a possible rights issue despite media reports saying that he is talking to investors to tap them for cash.

The Sunday Times reported that G4S has already held talks with investors to ask them to bolster its balance sheet after the group, under the leadership of ousted former CEO Nick Buckles, had racked up a series of setbacks.

Almanza Tackles Legacy Issues

Shares in G4S have tumbled 25% over the past year amid a series of scandals.

Buckles left G4S after the company posted a profit warning in May following the fallout of it failing to uphold its contract to provide a set number of security personnel for the event.

The group, which was contracted to supply 10,400 security guards to the 100 Olympic sites across the country, was unable to meet this target - forcing the UK government to draft in soldiers and police officers as cover.

It cost the company £50m in losses and led to G4S pulling out of the bidding war for the Fifa World Cup security contract in 2014.

Almanza, who was the group's CFO previously, stepped in as G4S' chief on Buckles departure in May.

Meanwhile, the British government has launched a review into security outsourcing firms G4S and Serco after an audit found evidence that they had charged for tagging criminals who were dead, in prison or had never been tagged in the first place.

Whitehall also announced it is freezing future contracts with G4S until it can be sure that it has a clean bill of health.

UK government contracts make up 10% of G4S' turnover.