Feral Jundi

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Maritime Security: Sailors on Xe Anti-Piracy Ship Claim Harassment

Filed under: Maritime Security — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 3:39 AM

   This is pathetic.  So Blackwater changes it’s name to Xe, yet does absolutely nothing about insuring that it’s management corps is competent? Because obviously, by reading into all of these claims, it looks to me like the leadership on the McArthur sucked.  And what really kills me is that Xe probably pays a really kick ass wage for these positions, yet it looks to me like they invested nothing into instilling any kind of management policy or new company philosophy into these folks.    

     Worse yet, where is the quality control?  Obviously this guy D’Alfio is a loser to the ninth degree, and I bet you dollars to doughnuts that he has a record of poor performance on other boats.  You would think that a multi-million dollar company like Xe would at least invest the time and effort into ensuring that their captain and management on this boat, are folks they want in charge of such a visual project?  Or that because Xe is already skylined, that it would have the business sense to make sure all the pieces of the machine are working properly?  Come on folks, this is getting old, and it is time to get on board with doing things right.

     On another note, bravo to the crew members that had the courage to stand up to these dorks. That sucks that you had to go through such a crappy ordeal, but if Xe is to learn it’s lessons, it takes folks like you to force them to do what is right and actually hold them accountable.  And to me, taking care of your people means actually caring about who you put in charge out there and paying attention to what is happening on these contracts. Leadership, leadership, and leadership…..-Matt  

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Sailors on Blackwater anti-piracy ship claim harrassment

05/14/2009

If three pending legal cases are any indication, it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing for the Blackwater counterpiracy ship.

The company, now known as Xe, launched the 183-foot vessel McArthur in the fall, saying it was ready to begin patrolling the Gulf of Aden to protect merchant vessels against pirate attacks.

However, legal papers allege that it’s the McArthur’s own crewmen that need protection – from their superior officers.

The picture of life aboard the McArthur that emerges from those documents seems to be ripped from the pages of a pirate yarn of yore: Verbal and physical abuse. Alcohol-fueled outbursts. Racial harassment and retaliation. And the punishment for loose lips: being clapped in irons.

One former crew member says that on the orders of the captain, he was thrown to the deck and handcuffed in retaliation for speaking to a newspaper reporter. He is suing for false imprisonment, saying he was unlawfully detained by being “placed in irons.”

Another crew member, who is black, says that he was subjected to racial epithets from the chief engineer and that when he complained, the captain did nothing about the harassment and retaliated by giving the seaman a poor evaluation.

A third man, the ship’s chief steward, says he was fired after he submitted a written statement to his superiors documenting the hostile work environment and racial harassment aboard the vessel.

Company officials had hoped the McArthur would help take up the slack from the loss of their big diplomatic security contract in Iraq. That contract was not renewed after a 2007 shooting incident in Baghdad left 17 Iraqis dead and spurred a series of lawsuits against the company, which is based in Moyock, N.C.

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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Management Positions: Protective Services Supervisor, Seattle

Filed under: Executive Protection,Management Positions,Seattle — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 9:53 PM

SMR group 

Protective Services Supervisor 

Global Fortune 500

Posted 1/27/2009 

Location Seattle, WA

Salary Open 

Position Sec-Exec Prot 

Department Security 

Qualifications

Summary – This full time position is responsible for providing, coordinating and supervising protective services for our corporate client’s senior executives and others as warranted. Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned. · Safeguarding Duties: Safeguards principals from all forms of security and safety hazards. · Advance work: Conducts surveys of future sites that principal will visit and various events. Combined domestic and international travel is 50%. · Driver: Acts as primary driver for principal. · Close-in protection: Provides security coverage for principals, guests, and family members in a way that is professional, courteous, and in compliance with policy and procedures.

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Monday, March 9, 2009

Industry Talk: UN’s Procurement Business is Managerial Disaster, Report Reveals

Filed under: Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 11:45 PM

   Uggh.  It looks like the UN needs to do some serious house cleaning as well? This entire article is sickening to read. The one portion of this report that I wanted to point out, which ties in with what we have been talking about over on Jake’s and Eeben’s site lately, is this:

      Another recommendation is that the U.N. organizations “establish a vendor performance database to be utilized in the procurement process”-in other words, keep a systematic record of how well the companies that sell goods and services to the U.N. are actually performing. The absence of such a database, the inspectors point out, “practically renders evaluations useless.” 

    So who came first, poor PMC’s and PSC’s, or a poor system of procurement at the UN?  Either way, this is good.  The UN must become a learning organization, and the same scrutiny that is being leveled at the US contracting crap, is finally being aimed at the UN.  I also wonder how many lives have been lost, all because of the poor leadership and terrible architecture in this world sponsored organization? –Matt   

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UN’s Procurement Business is Managerial Disaster, Report Reveals

Monday , March 09, 2009

By George Russell

EXCLUSIVE: The United Nations’ $10 billion procurement business-the buying of goods and services for its operations worldwide-is a managerial disaster, in which its own procedures are not followed, documentation is often missing and the total amount spent on consultants is unknown, according to a damning report now being quietly circulated at the world body.

Moreover, the U.N.’s top managers have apparently been failing to meet requests from the U.N. General Assembly to fix the situation since at least 2001.

The conclusions appear in a sharply-worded, 40-page note to the U.N.’s top managers that was delivered in early December. The note, obtained by FOX News, appears to confirm a dismal portrait of the U.N.’s major money-spending activities that the organization has often vehemently denied.

The inspectors who prepared the latest management report work for a specialized, Geneva-based watchdog of the world organization known as the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU). The JIU’s job is to assess and improve the efficiency and coordination of the U.N. worldwide through its inspection and recommendation process.

Its prescriptions for improving management, however, only have the force of recommendations –and in this case, the inspectors note, they made some of the same suggestions as far back as 1999, with little apparent effect.

The new document bears the numbing title of “Corporate Consultancies in United Nations System Organizations,” and for its first 13 pages is mainly a highly-critical examination of U.N. usage of consultants for such things as information management, management restructuring and internal analysis.

Click here to read the report.

When it comes to hiring consultants, the inspectors also find the U.N. as a whole badly wanting — starting with the fact that, as the report notes, “in the United Nations system, there is no definition of corporate consultancy,” and the organization apparently doesn’t even know how much money it is spending on the service.

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Sunday, February 15, 2009

Industry Talk: For Standards and Organization, Look to the Fire Industry

Filed under: Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 1:17 PM

     How do you apply standards and some kind of organization to a contracting industry that works in war zones? Here is a look at how another industry that deals with a very dangerous environment called fire, has worked out the problem. The Federal Fire Services. (I also posted this as a comment over at Jake’s site, and figured this needed a home here as well.)    

     The one experience I have with this, was when I was a smokejumper, dispatcher, and Incident Commander Type 4 in the federal fire services.  The government uses contractors to support fire operations on a regular basis–in fact they are highly dependent on them.  It is also a system that works.

     The fire industry is a lot like the war industry the more I think about it, and the fire industry went through the same problems of standardization.  The government had to figure out what was a governmental task and what could be contracted out in fire.

     Smokejumpers, Helitac, and Hotshot crews are still all government controlled, as well as most of the upper level Incident Command positions.  But these are areas that are constantly tested for possible privatization.  Although my belief is that those functions should remain governmental, and most agree on that in this industry.  But still, there are a lot of functions that can be contracted out for forest fire operations. Aviation stuff, like helicopters and fire bombers, to camp kitchens, to communications trailers, to hand crews and engines that help to mop up on fires or even assist in initial attack on a fire.  The Incident Commander of that fire makes the final call on all of it, and they determine if that company or federal/state unit is an asset or liability.  They can also kick people off of fires, or set up training for the various management positions for anyone on that incident.  

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Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Jobs: Security Manager, Iraq

Filed under: Iraq,Jobs,Management Positions — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 9:11 PM

Job Title: Manager, Security

Location: Iraq

Job Description

Responsible for security within a Task Order with multiple sites. Provides oversight and general assets protection for the company to include vital intellectual property used in e-commerce. Other assets include money, accounts receivable, physical property, proprietary information and claims or rights of action. Provides security oversight and protection of employees as required. Provide oversight, protection and response for violations of company ethics policy, both inside and outside the enterprise, to include dishonesty, fraud and conflict of interest, and other issues related to workplace violence, antisocial behavior (making threats, engaging in sexual harassment, etc.), gambling and sabotage. Provide oversight and advice on the use of both proprietary and contact guard forces. Provides oversight, review, audit, surveys, and recommendations concerning security training, security awareness, residential security, office and project security, airport security, vehicular movement and route selection, counter surveillance and threat assessments in overseas location. Provides support as required to corporate crisis management program. Provides support as required to business continuity operations. Conducts auditing within the security clearance department to ensure compliance with client policies and procedures. Manages investigations and ensures employee security. Supervises Site security personnel and ensures compliance with theater and Program management’s directives. Responsible for developing and implementing force protection strategies and plans on the project level. Conducts security surveys and trains subordinate staff.

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