Saturday, April 23, 2011

Who can you Trust?

Kia Ora,

Over the last few years New Zealand government departments have been embarrassed by people in high positions being exposed for having falsified their CV's.

A recent investigation made the comment that basic procedures had not been followed.

Probably the biggest issue though is bureaucrats sticking to a system that has been shown to be flawed. That is the use of referees. Government departments stick to this like glue, but in reality it is so easy to manipulate.

Several years ago whilst at a seminar a leading member of the recruitment industry made just this point. Your referee is always someone who is going to say the best about you & easy to set up someone who will actually be in on any lies you put in your CV.

Personally if I am required to provide referees I use ex army mates as I know they will give honest answers even if that means I might miss out on something. A CV & most referees can never actually tell you how someone will be in the position.

A good point the person from the recruitment industry made was see if you know the businesses in the CV & ring them or someone in that industry. Get a warts & all appraisal.

It is that warts & all that any security style check needs to know. Not what courses you can put on paper.

Have said it before there are many coming out of courses who have little actual knowledge of security or any other industry. The education system is dumbing people down so any paper work is worthless when looking at what a person can provide for the employer.
The Essential Guide to Recruitment: How to Conduct Great Interviews and Select the Best Employees
For the security industry it should be the ability to think for yourself, honesty & lack of drug use. It is an industry where experience will teach you more after an initial base training.

Government departments it should be how efficient you are, how you can think for yourself & again how honest you are.

In the latest high profile situation the actual work face members of that department(the military)should of had a greater say than they obviously did in the employment of this particular individual.

Due to a yearly exchange of personnel across the ranks structure, exercises & other commitments the New Zealand Military has a lot of contacts within the British Military system that should of exposed this person as a fraud a lot sooner.
Recruiting with Social Media: Social Media's Impact on Recruitment and HR
That information would of been coming from people they trust. It is obvious now that any referees must of been in on the scam because it was nothing else but a scam.

Despite all this on going problems with recruiting in particular offshore qualifications & experience government departments are still going down the 'referee' road when it quite obviously is open to major abuse. This creates security issues that need to be sorted.

You know how much you can trust someone you actually know. As opposed to a nameless person on the end of the phone or these days computer.

How do you know that the person you are talking too is not the person applying?

http://www.foxhoundsecurity.co.nz

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Corruption is Rife!

Kia Ora,

Well work inside the Christchurch CBD Red Zone is finished & it got too busy to keep up the blog & since then a little task as well as finding a new premises then moving(still in progress).

One thing the earthquakes in Christchurch have exposed corrupt practices are rife in New Zealand.

Before writing a previous post commenting on corruption I searched it on the internet as the dictionary I had seemed to have a narrow view. What came back in the first two searches showed that nine out of ten definitions hardly alluded to money if at all but more were words like "make things worse" or "lack of integrity". A third search without changing the search words suddenly only referred to money until the second page. I tend to go with the first two searches.

In a recent debate people kept insisting on a set definition but that allows those in charge to then carryout corrupt practices that frustrate but for some reason fall into gray areas that don't require them to answer for their actions.

The reason though I am moving is due to what I consider a corrupt practice making the place I reside unsafe although it appears to only have about 25 superficial cracks on the outside with one large crack in the warehouse.

After the September 4th 2010 Earthquake it was noticed there was sand come up out front. The owners said "oh yes it has sand infill".

Would of never signed the lease had I been aware of that having been part of civil defence & knowing that liquifaction was likely when sand base is under your property.

But it gets worse. Whilst working recently we had the luck to work along side a structural engineer.

What they highlighted has also been recently highlighted by Far North Mayor & engineer Wayne Brown. He said he was shocked by the poor building standards in residential houses in Christchurch, which mirrored the comment by the US USAR team member to me about our high rises.

In the 'Press' article highlighting comments from Brown the Department of Building & Housing commented the quake had highlighted some bad buildign practices peculiar to Christchurch such as unreinforced concrete slabs under residential houses.

When I said sand infill the engineer raised his eyes & said "so what else has happened?" or words to that effect. Basically when the big crack appeared the rear wall became concave as floor sloped down that side with wall in at the top. Few weeks later there was a thump & on inspection a second crack had appeared at right angles to the major one & wall straightened itself fully over the next week.

As the saying goes there is more & this is where you start to see the corruption.

Allegedly many years ago the City council tried to stop Developers from using sand infill. The theory is sand under your concrete slab makes it stronger so you don't have to use as much reinforcing or as comments from department no reinforcing.

Since the Council didn't have the resources to fight the developers in court so I am told they come up with a compromise where it would only be allowed to be used in single story residential premises.

Two issues there. Sand becomes a form of liquifaction during the pressure from an earthquake & you could see that in the warehouseas cracked area had risen above the rest of the floor. What we have noticed around Christchurch is when liquifaction occurs somewhere it leaves what becomes a sink hole as the shaking causes the light soil like silt or sand to move to one spot leaving a gap where the light soil was prior to the shake.

Secondly is that the property I had leased for my business was an apartment/office/warehouse which is two stories. So somewhere along the line this dodgy practice has morphed into been Ok for commercial two stories.

The article refers to several other questionable practices in residential housing with no accounting of the bad practices in commercial or high rise premises.

Some very new buildings such as the IRD building or CBS areana have stood up well from anecdotal comment. The other significantly have been from anecdotal comment those built by the Ministry of Works which was criticised for over engineering anything it built but would of been using the lessons of the 1931 Napier earthquake.

Everything else in between I would be very suspicious off until a full check has been done. Thats a proper check not the Mickey mouse ones we have been getting on direction from the Body corporate. It also seems from what we have seen in the Red Zone that is an engineer has a vested interest then the report on a building is vastly different to that of an independant engineer.

Seems we quickly forget the lessons then corruptly short cut everything we can whick in the long run proves more expensive in lives. Funny thing is it is claimed these bad practices were a result that earthquakes were unlikely in Christchurch. Civil Defence though had maps & projections (shown to us when you joined back in 90's not to mention the 1996 documentary)of likely damage to Christchurch in the event of the big quake expected on the Alpine fault or a Tsaunami.

As bad as Civil Defences response has been to the Canterbury earthquakes they did try to minimize effects but were given not much teeth or credence. They had to fight to keep the sand dunes at 5 metres when first lowered from 8 metres as people wanted them taken down completely to improve property prices.

Didn't help that many of their own people didn't take it seriously & still don't.

In the vein of making things worse that seems to be the one thing Civil Defence are doing well. There is no leadership & frustrations are growing. One thing everyone does in Christchurch is talk about the quake.

From a professional point of view I point out that this slow response is now the norm for diaster recovery around the world & tends to result in riots. Most are now saying they can see that happening here shortly unless the truth is put out there & real progress is made.

That is not the reaction you expect to get here. Prior to the February 22nd earthquake if you mentioned that was a possibility the stock answer would of been "not in Christchurch" or "not in New Zealand", someone actually said "New Zealand was now too PC for it to happen as everyone would be worried that they would upset someone".

Well that has all changed now. I have stayed on message it is just others response to it has changed & all due to corruption.

www.foxhoundsecurity.co.nz

Friday, April 1, 2011

Hail the Black Sheep!

Kia Ora,

Pretty full on at present with tasks resulting from the February earthquake. So will also be publishing posts written when an upcoming task was not going to allow me to blog.

It might seem strange for a blog about security & security related issues but I am all in support of a families Black Sheep. Better known these days as Peter Freedom the person who has successfully(whilst travelling the world) for two years de frauded our Social Welfare department exposing it as corrupt & incompetent.

As someone who once was on a benefit as a back up(as it is supposed to be) it was always galling to see all those that didn't help themselves getting a hand out whilst those of us who tried to help ourselves got no help at all. In fact our names got passed from case manager to case manager to make them look good. You either help all or none equally otherwise you just encourage people to give up.

Now there has been an article in the 'Press' where the CEO of WINZ tries to defend the department handing out cash to a 'charity' run by an overstayer. Seems they have not learnt the lessons.

Many in the US think they are now a socialist state. They have no idea but in saying that some things the government needs to pick up especially in a small country where the population just isn't big enough to provide everything.

Recently Public service chiefs were said to be angered over the publicity of how much they earn. Tough! When they are earning up to $380,000 more than most workers they are answerable when they are not providing the services they are expected too.

Being on Welfare is soul destroying but that doesn't mean that people can't be provided with actual assistance that some might just need to kick start. Right at this moment the government is looking to trim people of these benefits which is great except the system is set up to penalize them if they try. There is no incentive to get off really apart from personal. Most try initially but give up after so many knock backs.
From Poor Law to Welfare State, 6th Edition: A History of Social Welfare in America
Also there are just not the jobs out there in the current economic climate & are less likely to be as the financial crisis worsens. Problem here is successive governments have spent years dumbing everybody down giving them 'financial education' that isn't that very few can see the best route out is to start a business for themselves. Of course governments, in particular New Zealand ones have made the requirements to be in certain businesses so onerous in the wrong ways that people find it hard to start.

When I say onverous in the wrong ways I mean we do, despite some sections in society saying otherwise, need good regulations to ensure people get the best. The market does not actually offer that as claimed by some because to compete means everyone will lower themselves to lowest common denominator to stay in business. There needs to be a good mix of both.

More often than not though the regulations cause the opposite to happen. They tend to be written by those with no practical knowledge of an industry or a role.
Transformation of the Welfare State: The Silent Surrender of Public Responsibility
So I hail the Black Sheep of his family for exposing at least some of the poor systems, corruption & incompetence in our civil service.

Really if they want to get people back to work & cut crime the best option is for the government to provide policies that allow businesses to start & flourish. As an Australian said when moving here to start a business "easy to set one up here but after that it is just apathy".

An efficient, competent civil service could help there. But ours tends to make the comedies 'Yes Minister & Yes Prime Minister' look like reality TV.
Just another slave of the welfare state - Bumper Sticker
They can't say it is not continuing as I know it is. Last year I had a flat mate move in before I threw him out two weeks later who was & is a con man as well as appearing to be a gambler.

So far I am the only one he hasn't been able to rip off from my knowledge. Correction next place he moved into threw him out in one week.

But recently I have begun receiving mail for him from our welfare department which I have returned saying gone no address & he was only here for two weeks a year ago.
Just another slave of the welfare state Long Sleeve T-shirt Large White
Having dealt with this type of thing before I can envisage what has happened. He has recently needed an address so has given this one. They are sending out mail whilst he rips them off. They will not stop as he has to change the address even if you tell them he is no longer there. The other option is He got a loan from them back then & only now are they chasing it up. Either way despite them been told at some stage a debt collector or PI will show up on the door.

Funny thing is all the fingers, in particular from the department, are been pointed at the Black Sheep. Their own faults are the problem.

If he returns to New Zealand he is to be prosecuted for defruading the department. I hope they are lining up the case manager & the CEO to stand along side him. Their corruption is what allowed this to happen.

Go the Black Sheep!

http://www.foxhoundsecurity.co.nz