LEADING CORPORATE SECURITY SERVICES COMPANY

Michael,

Yes, that is decidedly odd, how did you find this one?

This is why we need your interesting curiosity!,

No mystery here. Indigenous organisations are always vanishing millions of dollars, like wizards or something.

If the Contract was signed on 9 April, the official of the Dept of Jobs, Precincts and Regions has made the signing on the day after the first meeting of the Council of the Crisis Cabinet. Maybe contracts for private security companies came up at this Council meeting so next day the Dept felt it was in the all clear to sign the Contract as the "handshake" deal had already been made by Ms Currie. Simon Phemister was the person who should have signed the Contract under his own hand.

This is what Phemister told the Board of Inquiry, courtesy of an ABC article,

"Mr Phermister was also asked why Unified Security Group, a company not on the Government's preferred list, was paid more than the other providers.

The DJPR paid the contractor $49.95 an hour, per guard provided.

This is compared to Wilsons Security that was on the preferred list, and charged $45.21 an hour.

Unified Security Group also charged more on Sundays, added a daily meal allowance to the contract and charged the Government for personal protective equipment (PPE).

Despite being more expensive, the Government used more of Unified's guards — 1,750 compared to Wilsons Security's 650.

Mr Phemister said his team did take into account "value for money" as well as other safety factors.

"By the time we accepted those base rates, it came to more qualitative factors," he told the hearing.

But counsel assisting Rachel Ellyard told the board Unified Security Group guards were not being paid more, despite the company charging higher rates.

"There doesn't, on the evidence available to the board, appear to be any suggestions that the rates paid to sub-contractors or to end staff were any higher for Unified than they were for other contractors."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-22/victoria-coronavirus-hotel-quarantine-inquiry-djpr-evidence/12688914

Justice Coate mentioned in her report the two women in the DJPR who were responsible for hiring private security. They were Claire Febey and Katrina Currie. And one of the achievements that got them over the line in securing their positions in the Department of Jobs, Precincts & Regions was their experience in the not-for-profit sector.

"...Mr Phemister selected Ms Febey because he considered her to be a highly trusted leader with experience managing large operations through previous roles in the not-for-profit sector."

".....Ms Currie was on secondment to Working for Victoria, a program that was established to support people who had been impacted by COVID-19 and who had lost their employment. Ms Currie made contact by Saturday morning with two security companies and one of them, Unified Security Group (Australia) Pty Ltd (Unified), provided guards on the Sunday morning at the Crown hotels."

Claire Febey's not-for-profit sector role was in "Save the Children". Though in her witness statement, she overlooked to mention that she is on the Board of Fitzroy Legal Services (its Chairperson, in fact) and she has "a commitment to inclusion and social justice."

https://www.charityguide.com.au/charity/13421440211/fitzroy-legal-service-inc

Providers on the State Purchase contract list should have been used to provide private security for the hotel quarantine program. However, Ms Currie didn't know about this list and she had already committed to Unified when she found out about it. She therefore sought an exemption to use Unified because it was an emergency. What came out in evidence is that Unified had previously applied to be on the State Purchase contract providers' list but had been rejected because the company did not meet the Government's standards.

The government's chief strategic specialist in procurement was astounded by the actions of Ms Currie in hiring Unified and wanted to know her rationale for going outside the guidelines in using a non approved provider as he could foresee risks. He also wanted to know why Unified's services could not be discontinued. This was on 31 March 2020. Katrina Currie pushed for the Contract with Unified and this is her rationale in wanting to retain them -

"Unified is an Aboriginal owned and controlled organisation and has worked with DJPR on related social procurement initiatives. They are accredited with Kinaway and Supply Nation. While they are not a panel provider for security services utilising their services is in keeping with the State Government’s social procurement objectives of utilising Aboriginal businesses. A legal exemption should be sought but Unified are delivering and have been delivering services since Sunday. The rationale for the exemption is both immediate need and their responsiveness but also their status as an Aboriginal owned and controlled business under the Government’s social procurement objectives."

It was then agreed that Unified would be given a contract but only for the two Crown hotel sites they were working at that time and it was further decided that the company was to be allocated no other hotels due to not being an approved on the State Purchase contract list. The other security providers on that list should be given future work. That decision of the Principal Policy Officer went out the window with Ms Currie on 3 April. Unified had wormed its way into being a preferred provider by 3 April by being the first security company operating at the hotel quarantine sites and agreeing to every request made of them by the Dept, requests that turned out to be inappropriate and risky.

"Unified appears to have won over those DJPR officers working on the frontline in hotels, and to have established itself as the preferred provider on the back of anecdotal reports about how well it was performing. Its elevated status in the minds of DJPR appears to have been set in place well before contracts were actually signed and before either of the other two providers had commenced work."

Ms Currie claimed that she had no idea that Unified was using subcontractors and that it had a small footprint in the security industry in Melbourne. It was pointed out to her at the Inquiry hearing that the contract she organised did refer to subcontracting.

Ms Currie disclosed in her submission that she have previously worked with Unified Security through the Brotherhood of St Laurence and its training program for the unemployed. Unified only had 89 permanent staff when it was approached to provide security for the hotel quarantine program. In a March 31 pitch to Ms Currie, Unified's Victorian manager, Nigel Coppick, advised that the company had been able to "recruit specifically for this task a total of 93 recently and long-term unemployed Victorians to support this initiative". That pitch would have pleased Ms Currie no end as that covered all bases with her Work Victoria job role in finding unemployed work.

Unified ended up being allocated 11 CBD hotels and 1 regional hotel, mostly using barely trained subcontractors. Wilsons was allocated a total of four hotels while MSS were allocated five hotels but one hotel was only for a two week stint.

Unified's indigenous connection held big sway in getting the bulk of the contracts, as did their inclusion and social justice credentials employing graduates from the Brotherhood of St Laurence's own security industry training program. The two women in the Department who were heavily into inclusion, social justice and diversity (ie Currie and Febey) must have thought their Christmases had all come at once when Unified hit their radar as being ideal for hotel quarantine security work.

https://www.bsl.org.au/services/getting-a-job/community-safety-and-information-service/

Like smoke in a sacred ceremony?

Michael,

It never ceases to amaze me the kind of person who seem to be the people who are in
Andrews' emploi.

These people have no idea how to run a business and how to employ the people necessary for the job required.

Here they are thinking of unemployment, aboriginality and the indigenous, all certainly
not the types to be working in security where it is necessary to have people who have some knowledge about cleanliness, infection-control and knowledge of people, who would be staying in the hotels.

It is is incapability of the leader who causes the disasters as indeed did follow.

Today, Mr Andrews did not show!

He is not resigning, he has advised, I would have thought somebody would have sacked him by now.

This is not the only scandal he has been in charge of, the whole time he has been in government has been scandalous.

Now with the amount of the contract having been changed they must be busy with a way they have found to cover this one up, as all other scandals have been covered up,'There have been no actions on any of the Royal Commissions which reek of investigation into big crime, well none of them have been followed up, they have only been filed away for reading by next generations, who must see how absolutely disastrous this government has been.

The few things he did yesterday made me really loath him even more, as he was indicating that the Premier of NSW was not doing such a great job. Not like him the 'genius'!, as he indicated, without blushing.

The man belongs in Jail!

What is now happening with these 30 Million Dollars? Dif they give the oney back and
where did it go to?