The United Associates Security and Domestic Services Inc may well be on the verge of complete collapse

Long troubled by controversy associated with late payment of salaries to security guards, outstanding indebtedness to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and the Guyana Revenue Autho-rity (GRA) and accusations of manipulating figures associated with the number of security guards assigned to state-owned sites across the country, the security firm United Associates Security and Domestic Services (UAS&DS) appears to be listing rapidly towards a standstill.

Since the sudden death in June this year of its long-time Chief Executive Officer Robert Johnson, control has passed – or at least so it seems – to Jean Smith, who, like Johnson, is a trade unionist.

The United Associates Security and Domestic Services was created in 2000 after the government decided to divest itself of responsibility for providing security services at hundreds of government locations in the country’s ten administrative regions.  Two trade unions, the National Union of Public Service Employees (NUPSE) and the Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers (UAAW) were allowed to form a company to take over responsibility for security at the state sites. While the move by government attracted some measure of complaint from pre-existing private security services, the move was widely considered to be a tactical one, designed to improve what at the time was widely perceived to be declining relations between

government and the trade union movement.

More than that, when the UAS&DS became, overnight, the single largest security firm in the country, the development was widely felt to have provided an opportunity for the labour movement to demonstrate that was, after all, capable of managing a business.

Johnson particularly, and now deceased UAAW General Secretary Seelo Baichan are credited with creating a country-wide administrative network that resulted in a relatively smooth transition and created a high profile for the company. UAS&DS’ security coverage spanned a range of state premises ranging from small, nondescript installations in the interior regions to prominent state premises like the Ministries of Health, Works, Education and Human Services.

Having commenced operations in a small area loaned to the company by the Ministry of Works, the UAS&DS moved its operations to rented premises in New Market Street and eventually to its own building in Fort Street, Kingston.

Three years of relative prosperity that even included some measure of expansion into providing security and janitorial services for private entities including international organizations quickly gave way to talk of corruption and mismanagement of funds including previously publicized allegations of payroll fraud involving the security detail in Region Six.

Long before those allegations security guards had begun to vent their feelings to both the media and the Ministry of Labour regarding late salary payments. As if that were not enough the company also found itself in hot water with both the NIS and the GRA over delinquency in the payment of employee contributions.

The consequences for the UAS&SDS were unsettling to say the least. As guards gave vent to their feelings over late pay by simply staying away from work the quality of service slipped markedly and the management found itself constantly fending off clients angered over the non-delivery of service.  Rumours begun to surface that senior state officials who had helped the company grow were becoming tired of defending its slew of errors and protecting it from the controversies in which it continually found itself.

Over time too, the company has been plagued by a string of deaths including those of former NUPSE General Secretary Quintyn, UAAW Board member Teckchand and former Board Chairman and UAAWU General Secretary Seelo Baichan.

Predictably, the company’s protracted bubble burst in 2004 when it lost its contracts for state premises in several regions. Additionally, the National Insurance Scheme moved to the courts to secure outstanding payments totaling more than $40m while disgruntled guards continued to apply pressure at the Ministry of Labour to have outstanding salaries paid. The company by this time was in a hobbled position. Apart from the fact that its earnings had been slashed dramatically on account of its significant loss of income, its indebtedness to the NIS and the GRA meant that it could not longer acquire critical Certificates of Compliance with which to tender for additional security contracts.

While critics of the company have been inclined to make the now deceased Johnson the ‘fall guy’ for its shortcomings, his death on June 1 may well have resulted in a worsening of the situation. The company’s debts to its guards, NIS, the GRA and its other creditors now amount to tens of millions of dollars. Tens of thousands of dollars are also reported owed in utility bills.

Recently, the company sacked several of its long-serving employees, including two of its long-serving security supervisors following reports that even as they continued to be in its employ they had committed themselves to contracts with a new company, Home Security and Domestic Services Inc set up by the deceased Johnson’s son Robert Jr. Letters dispatched to them by Astil Ogle, a one-time middle ranking security functionary who was himself enmeshed in a controversy that had to do with apparent accountability concerns, accused the dismissed employees of “trespassing and conducting industrial espionage.”  Ogle, who had reportedly parted ways with the company several months earlier has re-emerged since Johnson’s death as Company Secretary and, many believe, the key figure in its administration.

The recently dismissed company functionaries have moved to the Ministry of Labour in order to secure monies due to them and this newspaper understands that an arrangement exists between the company and the ministry under which payments are made to the ministry for transmission to those persons.

Some company functionaries contend that whatever criticisms may have been made of Johnson, his presence served, even during his period of illness, to hold the company together. The disarray that has followed his demise is evidenced in further recent contract losses, mounting death and a leadership that is clearly at odds with itself. The current Chairperson of the Board of Directors, UAAW President Jean Smith has been a long-serving member of the Board but has no real experience in managing a business, far less, a business in crisis.  Since assuming office as head of the Board Smith has locked horns with other Board members, particularly Rudolph Welch a NUPSE official who has replaced Johnson as a Board member. Welch has complained of what he says is a move to diminish the role of NUPSE within the organization, a move which he says is a payback for the fact that a NUPSE official had ruled the roost since the setting up of the company.

When Stabroek Business spoke with Smith early this week about plans to pay outstanding salaries to the companies dismissed former employees she agreed to check and confirm “the latest position.” Since then, however, attempts to reach her by telephone have proven futile. Reached by telephone Welch told Stabroek Business that while he was aware that there were monies outstanding for the dismissed guards he had no idea as to the amounts outstanding or whether a time frame had been established for making the payments. Welch said that part of the problem reposed in the fact that since the death of Johnson no meeting of the company’s Board of Directors had been convened. “I have raised the matter with the Chairperson and she has told me to speak with Mr. Ogle. I have no intention of discussing the convening of a Board meeting with Ogle. At one point I had been told that there would be a Board meeting before the end of September. We are approaching the end of September.

Meanwhile, Welch said that as far as he was aware the company may have engaged the GRA with regard to the payments owed to that body. With regard to the company’s indebtedness to the NIS Welch said that as far as he was aware that mater was still in court.

With little hope of being able to discharge its liabilities given its current financial base there appears to be no clear plan to move the company forward. Welch says that Board members must work together and appears not to approve of what he says was Smith’s move to place Ogle in a position of greater authority. He has tried, seemingly unsuccessfully, to persuade Smith to have the Board take action to address the contents of a May 12th, 2009 letter sent by Johnson to Ogle asserting that Ogle was one of several employees who could “provide information on a Bank of Guyana cheque issued by the Ministry of Human Services for $791,040.00” The Johnson letter also directed that Ogle “proceed on one month No Pay Leave with effect from May 15th, 2009 to allow for a conclusion of this investigation.” Welch says that Smith appears altogether disinterested in pursuing the contents of Johnson’s letter to Ogle and the latter has now been reinstalled even though the issue of an investigation no longer appears to be on the front burner.

While Welch had told this newspaper several weeks ago that the Board was hoping to focus on rebuilding the company by securing new contracts and seeking to liquidate its debts over time, he has been, by his own admission, marginalized by Smith and therefore in no real position to make an impact on the organization. At any rate, given its present circumstances, including its loss of contracts and serious state of indebtedness the writing would certainly appear to be on the wall for the company which, for many, was felt to be a golden handshake from the government to the trade union movement.