Concern over CAL's security tender

by PETER GREEN

FLASHBACK: Attorney MICHAEL QUAMINA (left) answers questions from the media on behalf of his client PM Dr KEITH ROWLEY at a press conference on October 17, 2018, to address allegations of corruption at Petrotrin (right) [Amalgamated Ad for a Special Project ]

Multi-tentacled security giant Amalgamated Security Services Limited (ASSL) has found itself in the middle of a hot, embarrassing mess with its aviation security services contract with National carrier Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL).

Two months after ASSL replaced Intercept Security Services, which had been providing security services to CAL for over a decade, ASSL has been forced to drop the contract like a hot potato and run. The contract is back up for tender by CAL, which had to swallow its pride and turn to Intercept to save the day as ASSL officers walked off the job recently.

This fiasco is causing a stink

The reason the Amalgamated officers quit their posts, Sunshine Today was reliably informed, is because ASSL tried to pay them significantly lower wages than other companies pay their workers for the same services. One security industry expert, on the request of anonymity, told Sunshine Today, “Amalgamated goes into these bids with extremely low prices that other companies cannot compete with and that is how they beat the competition to get the jobs. Their employees lose out because the company is able to win contracts because they are paying workers lower wages than their competitors. But this time the workers realized that they are being short-changed and taken advantage of and the workers decided to take a stand against that.”

Sunshine Today understands the ASSL security officials found out that other security companies pay their staff $26 per hour to perform aviation security services at the Piarco International Airport. ASSL, however, was paying their workers only $16 per hour to perform the same duties. Aviation security includes providing security services for passengers, crew and cabin baggage, hold baggage, courier, cargo and mail, hijacking and bomb threat management.

The reason this fiasco is causing a stink is because of how ASSL landed the contract in 2018 – and now that it is backing out of it the safety of CAL’s passengers may be compromised. In January 2019, Sunshine Today broke the news that ASSL had obtained the lucrative contract and we highlighted some serious concerns at the time. But, as usual until it is too late, no one took us seriously.

There are reasons to be suspicious

Firstly, CAL’s Deputy Chairman is the political insider, attorney-atlaw Michael Quamina, who is one of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s personal lawyers. Quamina has also been a long-standing legal representative for ASSL. Observers have queried whether Quamina’s presence on the CAL board had any impact on the sudden termination of the Intercept’s services and the award to ASSL. Additionally, many questioned the wisdom in firing a long-serving provider with whom there was no complaint and replacing them with another company that did not have a comparable track record or for that matter any track record in performing aviation security. Everyone knows that experience is an important factor when evaluating a tender.

What the latest fiasco has revealed is that there is reason to be suspicious. According to documents in the possession of Sunshine Today, Intercept was contracted by CAL since 2007 to provide aviation security services at the Piarco International Airport. The company has other contracts with the airline for other security functions. In July 2017 – 10 years after Intercept had been performing aviation security services activities at Piarco for CAL – the airline wrote the security company inviting it to tender for a new contract to provide the same services. On November 16, 2018, Intercept’s Managing Director Valmiki Samaroo was served with a letter signed by CAL’s head of security Kurt Gould, notifying the company that its then-11-year-old aviation security contract was terminated, effective in two months. Intercept was required, therefore, to cease all aviation security services activities at the Piarco International Airport on January 13, 2019. Intercept’s separate contracts with CAL for security services at the airline’s main gate at its Piarco Head Office and at the ANR Robinson Airport in Tobago, were not affected. The award of the contact for aviation security services activities at the Piarco International Airport to ASSL only came to light in December 2018.

ASSL employees were trained by CAL

But according to the documents in this newspaper’s possession, ASSL employees were trained by CAL in aviation security – some say at tax-payers’ expense to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars – between September and October, 2018. How much was spent on the Amalgamated Ad for a Special Project training of ASSL employees and who paid for it are the questions for which answers are needed. Sunshine Today was informed that when ASSL security guards walked off the job, CAL was left scrambling for a replacement since security checks are mandatory before any aircraft can take off. Failure to have the checks performed would severely interrupt CAL’s service.

The airline reportedly called in Intercept to hold the fort while it goes through the process to issue a fresh contract to a new security service provider. With the ASSL security guards unwilling to work for the $16 per hour, the ASSL employees who were trained by CAL are now applying to other security companies for work, citing in their resumes that they were trained and certified in aviation security by CAL while working at ASSL. In the meantime ASSL has begun to advertise for aviation security officers and they have raised the payment from $16 per hour to now $23 per hour and applicants are asked to go to their Tumpuna office for screening and training. All of this is in preparation for a Special Project which many deem to be CAL Security Project. Many insiders say that ASSL is sure to get the CAL’s contract though the tenders have not yet been reviewed. CAL only closed the bids last Friday

In an earlier ad in a daily newspaper the name of the security firm was not named, but the contents were the same as the ad on this page except that the telephone number (307-9487) was different. Everyone is awaiting the outcome of CAL’s new tender to see if the aviation security contract will once more be given back to ASSL despite them earlier failing to perform their contracted duties.

Outpouring of concern

There has been an outpouring of concern over the past few years over the number of lucrative security contracts ASSL has been receiving from the government and its State agencies. Most recently, Estate Police Association (EPA) President Deryk Richardson expressed his discomfort with ASSL having a monopoly control over security at the nation’s airport and sea ports.

“What we are seeing is the privatization of the security apparatus at State Enterprises nearly exclusively by Amalgamated Security. The question must be asked why is it this one company name is being proffered on all these State contracts? Are we are a nation willing to allow this company to patrol the waters of Trinidad and Tobago, the ports of entry at the airport, at Point Fortin, Point a Pierre and also at the port in Point Lisas?” Richardson asked the media. According to Richardson, estate police officers at Port Point Lisas and PLIPDECO were informed that Amalgamated officers will now be accompanying them as part of a pilot project. “It is a dangerous move if you have a private entity patrolling your waters, a private entity at your airport, a private entity at your sea ports and a private entity at your communications network (TSTT),” Richardson said. “People need to sit down and analyze what is happening. Why is it this one company is getting all these State contracts?” he asked. ASSL also has the very lucrative contract for the transport of prisoners between the prisons and the courts throughout the country.