Chaos reigns in Rio as one of the externally sourced security companies pulls out at the last minute.

Just three days before the Games are due to start, the federal government is desperately trying to resolve the problems caused by Artel Human Resources, a company from Santa Catarina, in the South of Brazil, who were in charge of body searches at access points to arenas and the Olympic village.

Instead, the Ministry of Justice said that this Friday (5), 3,400 retired police and fire agents will be called in to Rio to perform these security checks. The searches are due to take place at access points to Olympic sites, as well as at iconic monuments the statue of Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf mountain.

All this extra personnel will cost the government roughly R$ 95 million (US$ 29 million) per day, according to Folha's calculations. The Ministry of Justice, Alexandre de Moraes, however, says that the cost will be around R$ 20 million (US$ 6 million).

Artel Human Resources was awarded the contract for the Games over a month ago. It would have received R$ 17.3 million (US$ 5.3 million) to provide up to 5,000 security guards who would perform X-rays, bag checks and metal detection at the Olympic sites during the competition.

Artel asked for an increase of R$ 2 million (US$ 600,000) to contract indivduals.

As it was not capable of complying with the terms of the contract - according to the government, the company only came up with 527 of the security guards it had promised -, out-of-service military police and firemen are being drafted in by the National Forces as replacements.

Each one of the retirees will receive daily payments of R$ 550 (US$ 170); Artel's employees would have received R$ 26 (US$ 8) per day.

Translated by GILLIAN SOPHIE HARRIS

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