Catherine Kumar, CEO of the T&T Chamber of Commerce, yesterday called for legislation to clean up the local security industry. She was commenting on last week's fatal robbery in which security officer Bert Clarke was killed when bandits attacked a Sentinel Security Services vehicle on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway.
"Over the last ten years or so stakeholders got together and drafted legislation together with the Government to deal with security in T&T," said Kumarwhen she addressed a Fraud and Criminal Behaviour Seminar at the Chamber's headquarters in Westmoorings."Given what is happening in crime, there is an upsurge of security firms in T&T and not all of them follow proper practices so the legislation was going to call for better practices among all the private security firms.
"That legislation has not gone anywhere really but now the Government must take it up as an urgent issue."She said the legislation should cover the scope of the entire security industry."The legislation would deal with training if necessary, before someone is given a firearm what they should do," she said. "Ensure that there are proper benefits for these security officers, because if they are not well paid and do not get benefits they are in positions where they can easily commit fraud. In many cases they have access to our premises."
Jeremy Jones, head of Enterprise Services Technology and Enterprises Services ar RBC Financial Ltd said at one time the bankhad its own cash transit system where it delivered its own money but it eventually outsourced that function."We were the only bank that operated a proprietary system. We must ensure that the that they provide are properly accounted for and they are trained," he said.Jones said T&T must look at why there is such a high crime rate in the country today.
"Is there anything we can do as an industry? We have been individually meeting with our providers to ensure that in terms of the pick up and drop off time that we will assist them. At the end of the day, private security is a business like us and the company affected is a private concern. You must look at if something was done wrong how you will improve it and make it better," he said.
Yesterday's seminar was facilitated by Jonesand Antonio Ventour, Manager Fraud and Corporate Investigations RBC Financial (CaribbeanLimited and was organised in response to an upsurge in fraudulent activities taking place in local companies. The aim was to educate the business sector on ways they can protect themselves from being victims of fraud.
Topics covered during the seminar included Bank and Insurance Fraud, Money Laundering, Protecting corporate information and confidentiality, law enforcement and corporate sabotage.