We received a lot of positive feedback from publishing our stance in the last newsletter and I’m very encouraged to see that so many within our industry possess similar ethics and social responsibility.
Some of you who know me well, know that I often am not pleased with what I see and hear out in the world about the security industry. While we don’t believe that we’ve somehow been appointed the Ethics or Morals Police and do not want to be the industry watchdogs, we do believe that on occasion, someone ought to speak up – so we will throw our two cents into the public dialog from time to time.
Our email accounts have been flooded with various organizations seeking resumes for “pending” contracts. Many of our Alumni have contacted us inquiring what we know about job opportunities or of companies that they haven’t heard of before offering them job opportunities. Several rumors about ITG® having deployed to Haiti developed and a number of business entities contacted us to let us know they were available and willing to support our efforts. Some of the later are very legitimate and we hope to establish new relationship out of those contacts. Some of the former are just more of the same old, same old…
Well, truth is, we have no contracts there as of the moment. And other than a few folks escorting news crews there is not yet much work there. As a business, we understand the need to lean forward and check the pulse of the “human resource” pool to see who may be out there and available when you think you’ll be bidding on contracts shortly. But we’ve been in the business long enough to know that until the ink is dry on the contract concerned and the deposit check hasn’t bounced, generally speaking it is a pie in the sky.
We also understand completely the need for business development efforts. But we don’t understand folks who claim to have contracts, spin up hopes for work among the not-currently-working crowd and then drop of the radar net completely. If you are building a resume database in hopes of future contract opportunities, all you really need to do is say so at that time you are soliciting people to submit them. Most of us who ply this trade understand that and we can then decide whether or not to join in the effort. But if that is what is being done, and then nothing comes of it, one is left feeling either deceived or rejected for unknown reasons. In either case, it is an unfulfilling experience. Therefore, we are not fans of that all too common approach and unfortunately, this is an all too common experience. In fact, it became so common – years ago – that many US Government RFPs requesting submission of proposed staff resumes spell out within their Request for Proposal specifications that the submitting company should endeavor to insure that they are not using the same resumes as their competitors during submission. It would be nice if this kind of thing dwindled down to next to nothing but we doubt it is realistic at this point to expect that outcome…
Word from our Haitian friends and family, and others, indicate that many of those who tried to get into the door early on have realized that there isn’t much going on there for security contractors and are bringing their folks home. However, there still seems to be a bit of an issue on the ground there in this regard. Probably not totally motivated from solely from the security industry perspective but in their last Consular Affairs Bulletin the US officially released the following statement. Emphasis is added to a couple of points within it that we think noteworthy:
“U.S. citizens are strongly urged to avoid travel to Haiti. The January 12 earthquake caused significant damage to key infrastructure, and access to basic services is extremely limited. Additional aftershocks remain a possibility. All forms of communication within Haiti are limited. The country is experiencing a severe shortage of food, water, transportation, and adequate shelter. All commercial airline carriers have suspended their operations until further notice. Medical facilities are operating beyond maximum capacity, and the lack of adequate sanitation poses serious health risks. Despite good intentions, travelers may increase the burden on a system already struggling to support those in need on the ground. In addition, the Embassy's ability to provide emergency consular services is limited. The following website has information on how best to assist in the Haiti earthquake relief effort: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/01/15/help-haiti.”
Now having been connected with Haiti since 1994 and having more than my fair share of T-Shirts from deployments to various international interventions, I want to share an observation. Whether commercial airlines initially stop their round trip travel due to terrorism, Coup D’tat attempts, civil disturbance, rebellions, revolutions, war, man-made or natural disasters, there is one common signal that the country concerned is open for business. The signal is that normal commercial airline activity has resumed. So far, it hasn’t. We are hearing that two of the major carriers into Port au Prince are planning such resumption now. American Airlines is looking at February 19th and Canada Air is looking at the 21st. I’m also sure, that is subject to change.
There are two more things we’d like to share:
- So far, the Haitian Government has not set up licensing procedures for foreign security companies the way that Iraq and Afghanistan did. That means the only way to currently conduct private security business is through a Haitian owned, licensed, Security Company. The arms embargo status pertaining to Haiti remains unchanged and the International Trade in Arms Regulations have no current Haiti related exceptions.
- So far, most of the reconstruction funds being pledged come from places other than the US Army Corps of Engineers. I’m pretty sure that American construction companies will NOT get the bulk of reconstruction work paid for by the above mentioned UNASUR funding. I’m also pretty sure that they won’t get the bulk of the work funded by the World Bank. There may be some US AID or Corps of Engineers projects develop during this reconstruction phase and there may be need for security for aspects of those contracts. If so, there may be permission for American security companies to provide some level of effort pertaining to those specific contracts.
Haiti is neither Iraq nor Afghanistan. While there will be a need for security for nearly any effort associated with the rebuilding effort, the focus is different. The acronyms of IED, VBIED, SAF, BBIED, SVBIED, SBBIED and others commonly encountered in those countries are not going to be in the vernacular. Pilferage and theft are. Yep, there has been kidnapping in Haiti for a while – it was a pre-earthquake cottage industry. So was car-jacking. But the great majority of that is Haitian on Haitian crime. We won’t be seeing kidnapping victim videos on Al-Jazzeria coming out of Haiti, ok? So contracts for reconstruction are not likely to be burdened with 25% or greater security costs.
Also recognize, that if the model that has developed over the past few years holds true, the number of western expatriate security staff will be low. We don’t believe there is desire within the nation to see a bunch of TCNs (Third Country Nationals) come into to country. We do believe that most of the security effort will be provided by what is currently termed LNs (Local Nationals) and to us, that only makes sense. Among the things Haitians looking to move from misery to poverty with dignity need is jobs. With good training and supervision, like anyone else needs, they can and will do a good job – that is something we can testify to confidently.
Like all other business within this industry, we will continue to monitor the situation and conduct business develop efforts. We will seek to function legally and ethically and won’t be broadcasting a call for resumes until two things happen: 1) we actually get one of those oft mentioned contracts that allow us to function legally within the country and 2) we run out of ITG® Alumni to hire.
Meanwhile, we’ll look for ways to donate, to support our friends and family and maybe, just maybe, create a job or two along the way…