Towards greater private security sector accountability

Accountability, control and oversight of the private security sector were the main topics of the expert discussion held on 8-9 December in Belgrade.

During the two-day discussions in a several separate working groups and sessions participants identified key elements of accountability of Private Security Companies (PSCs), which, according to the main assumption, should not be limited only to their responsibilities towards their various clients, but should extend towards the public in general, since the consequences of poor activities of PSCs are not felt only by their clients, but all citizens. This can be illustrated with cases where some persons were beaten up (to death even) in front of night clubs, or cases where robberies affected the maintenance of public order.

It was stressed that there are certain common problems to private security sectors in Southeast European countries, and they are the following: (unreasonably) low price of labour, low quality of security guards training, unfair competition, non-existence of security managers, as well as weak and incoherent control over the PSCs conducted by public bodies. A severe problem is also political corruption which enables PSCs with connections to win bids, even though they offer extremely low prices, through which it is not possible to pay out basic tax costs. However, since they have political affiliation, these PSCs can avoid inspections.  

At the very end of the expert discussion, it was concluded that greater private security sector accountability can be attained only through improving the quality of trainings, through strengthening and making various mechanisms of oversight and control more consistent and logical, especially when it comes to inspections done by the Ministry of Interior and the Labour Inspectorate, as well as through more intensive client control over the performance of contractual obligations. Likewise, of great importance is complete transparency of the work done by controlling bodies, in order to prevent selective and politically motivated approach in the controling process.

The discussions were enriched with the presence of representatives of various stakeholders, such as some of the biggest PSCs from Serbia, namely “G4S” and “Securitas”, as well as PSCs from the region, but also from Sweden (the “SRS Group”). Also, present were representatives of the Serbian Association of Corporate Security Managers, as well as employees from the Sector for Licencing and Control of Private Security of the Bulgarian National Police. Also, further light on the subject was shed by prominent experts from the Serbian, German and British academia.  

This discussion was a component part of the “Private Security Research Collaboration South East Europe (2014-2017)” Project which is realized by the Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) in cooperation with its partners from Southeast Europe- the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP), the Centre for Security Policy (CSD), the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM), and the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS). The aim of the project is to determine the similarities and differences in privatizing security in the aforementioned countries, as well as to detect the main problems in attaining complete responsibility of the PSCs, and on this basis to formulate legal and practical recommendations for improving oversight and control over them.