A news item has shown a breach of security at a New Zealand Military base two years ago with graffitti been applied to an Australian air force plane.
In response a security fence was erected around the airfield. Now to people overseas that might seem far fetched but most New Zealand military bases until recent years have been open to anyone.
The camp I spent most of my army career in used to be so open. The week we arrived there a member of the Soviet Embassy had been caught because they were sitting out front with a clip board noting the registration of cars entering & leaving the camp. The KGB is alleged to have used New Zealand as its training base since our security was so slack.
We have put fences up but not much else has changed. Security in general is now provided by private companies but with minimum manning.
The airforce response to the photographs of the damage to the planes has been we are providing great security. I know they aren't & they have been told by a former soldier that they weren't, but they knew better.
Private Armed Forces and Global Security: A Guide to the Issues
But it not just there. Encountered the same issue when tendering for the security contract at a defence headquarters venue. When we didn't get the contract they sent reasons for not obtaining it.
First was not going to comply with the NZQA(qualification) requirement. As was pointed out in reply & in the tender document minimum standard was ex military so highest standard & level of security(paradox here as the military has access to this knowledge but doesn't use it) which is much much higher than NZQA. In fact I wouldn't hire people with NZQA unless they had the experience & background to back it up. The standards as applied now to those qualifications are too low for them to be even in the industry.
Guarding Against Espionage, Sabotage, & Subversion - Military Base Security (1953)
Second point was no one visited the site. Reply was didn't have too as requirements were spelt out but also since the issue of the tender had blown up in the news media from footage they were lucky no one did as tender would of been at least doubled.
Last point they had was tender was outside their budget.
Reply here was due to nature of facility payments planned were greater than normal security. Also the fact that outlined current provider at the time could not provide the requirements of current laws with the numbers they had. Therefore numbers planned for took into account the laws & changes of laws due to ocme into effect.
Private Armed Forces and Global Security: A Guide to the Issues (Contemporary Military, Strategic, and Security Issues)
Had no reply but what that said to me was they had not carried out a proper risk assessment of possible threats & that the laws regarding employment did not apply to government departments.
We need to get our mindset sorted. This is a recurring theme you see in New Zealand & therefore in my blogs regarding security. Why wait until people are killed again by terrorist actions?
http://www.foxhoundsecurity.co.nz
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