Serco - The biggest uk company you have never heard of

[Magda Hassan]

Exclusive: Australian government contract with Serco revealed

The fol*low*ing global ex*clu*sive, writ*ten with Paul Far*rell and Marni Cordell, ap*pears today in Aus*tralian mag*a*zine New Matilda:

Today NM pub*lishes the con*tract signed be*tween the De*part*ment of Im*mi*gra*tion and Serco, ob*tained under the Free*dom of In*for*ma*tion Act
New Matilda has gained ex*clu*sive ac*cess to the first pub*licly avail*able ver*sion of the 2009 De*part*ment of Im*mi*gra*tion and Cit*i*zen*ship (DIAC) con*tract with British multi*na*tional Serco.
The con*tract was ob*tained through a Free*dom of In*for*ma*tion re*quest and re*veals the most com*pre*hen*sive in*for*ma*tion yet about the run*ning of Aus*tralian de*ten*tion cen*tres.New Matilda's analy*sis of the doc*u*ment re*veals that:

• Gen*eral se*cu*rity guards can begin work with no for*mal se*cu*rity qual*i*fi*ca*tions and are only re*quired to ob*tain a Cer*tifi*cate II within six months of work*ing with Serco.
  

• Clin*i*cal de*pres*sion, child*birth and vol*un*tary star*va*tion for under 24 hours are con*sid*ered "minor" in*ci*dents while unau*tho*rised media ac*cess is con*sid*ered "crit*i*cal".
  

• Of these "minor" in*ci*dents, only 10 per cent are re*quired to be au*dited in*ter*nally by Serco.
  

• There is no con*trac*tual re*quire*ment of an in*de*pen*dent audit of Serco's man*age*ment of de*ten*tion cen*tres.
  

The first 80 pages of the con*tract can be down*loaded here. Links to the re*main*ing sec*tions can be found at the end of this ar*ti*cle.Other is*sues of note in*clude:

• Serco is obliged to pro*vide phone ser*vices to peo*ple in de*ten*tion but the con*tract spec*i*fies that mo*bile phone hand*sets "[must] not have a record*ing fa*cil*ity (ei*ther audio or vi*sual)".
  

• Serco must also "con*trol and limit" de*tainees' in*ter*net ac*cess to pornog*ra*phy, FTP sites, and "pro*hib*ited sites in for*eign lan*guages". It is not spec*i*fied which sites are pro*hib*ited and under what law.
  

• If a mem*ber of the pub*lic com*plains or pro*vides feed*back about an im*mi*gra*tion de*ten*tion cen*tre, Serco must no*tify the de*part*ment within one day and pro*vide a writ*ten re*sponse to the per*son within two weeks, "set*ting out the ac*tion taken of the rea*son why no ac*tion will be taken".
  

• Serco is obliged to pro*vide "tea, cof*fee, water and bis*cuits" when de*tainees have vis*i*tors and vis*it*ing areas must con*tain "hot/cold drinks and con*fec*tionery vend*ing ma*chines".
  

• Serco must "not pro*vide ac*cess to the Fa*cil*ity for media vis*its un*less the visit has been ap*proved by the De*part*ment" and must "en*sure that media per*son*nel only con*duct ac*tiv*i*ties ap*proved by the De*part*ment".
  

• Serco in*dem*ni*fies DIAC from and against any loss aris*ing from or as a con*se*quence of any "death, or bod*ily in*jury, dis*ease or ill*ness (in*clud*ing men*tal ill*ness) of any per*son in*clud*ing Peo*ple in De*ten*tion" this clause sur*vives for a pe*riod of seven years fol*low*ing the ex*pi*ra*tion of the con*tract.
  

Ac*cord*ing to a let*ter from DIAC's FOI of*fi*cer, Serco ob*jects to DIAC's de*ci*sion to re*lease some parts of this con*tract and has ex*er*cised its rights under FOI law to block ac*cess to those sec*tions in the doc*u*ment marked "s27 con*sul*ta*tion".View the FOI of*fi*cer's de*ci*sion and a full list of the doc*u*ments that were blocked by Serco here.How*ever, New Matilda has also ob*tained a leaked copy of the con*tract in which some of these blocked sec*tions are vis*i*ble.This ver*sion of the con*tract has not been of*fi*cially re*leased, and re*veals:

• The in*ter*nal and ex*ter*nal perime*ter of the de*ten*tion cen*tres are only re*quired to be checked by se*cu*rity guards twice a day; at the open*ing of the cen*tre and be*fore it's locked up.
  

• Checks to en*sure de*tainees are "pre*sent and safe" are only re*quired to be con*ducted four times a day.
  

• A car*rot and stick sys*tem of "abate*ments" and "in*cen*tives" where Serco is fined for poor per*for*mance and re*warded with higher fees for good per*for*mance
  

Read the leaked ver*sion of the con*tract here.The fact that this con*tract has only been re*leased now, more than two years after it was signed, re*flects how closely guarded the agree*ment be*tween Serco and the Fed*eral Gov*ern*ment re*mains.Last week, Serco's Aus*tralian CEO Bob McGui*ness told Perth Now that he was "gob*s*macked" to hear Serco de*scribed as a "se*cre*tive or*gan*i*sa*tion" in the media. "I find that as*ton*ish*ing," he said.In fact, the con*tract pro*hibits Serco em*ploy*ees from speak*ing to the media at all. It reads:"The Ser*vice Provider must not, and will en*sure that its of*fi*cers, em*ploy*ees, di*rec*tors, con*trac*tors and agents do not:
Make any pub*lic state*ment;
Re*lease any in*for*ma*tion to, make any state*ment to, deal with any in*quiry from or oth*er*wise ad*vise the media;
Pub*lish dis*trib*ute or oth*er*wise make avail*able any in*for*ma*tion or ma*te*r*ial to third par*ties."The hypocrisy of McGui*ness's com*ments is also re*mark*able in light of Serco's at*tempts to block ac*cess to in*for*ma*tion that the DIAC FOI de*ci*sion maker has ar*gued should be pub*lic.The Labor gov*ern*ment and DIAC agreed to the terms of this con*tract. By pri*vatis*ing im*mi*gra*tion de*ten*tion cen*tres, suc*ces*sive Aus*tralian gov*ern*ments have kept these is*sues out of sight and out of mind, under the pre*tence of in*for*ma*tion being "com*mer*cial-in-con*fi*dence". Bu*reau*cratic buck-pass*ing en*sures lit*tle firm in*for*ma*tion is ever re*leased.Many parts of the con*tract have still not been re*leased on the de*ci*sion of DIAC's FOI of*fi*cer in*clud*ing the names of the Serco di*rec*tors who man*age re*la*tions with DIAC and run de*ten*tion cen*tres.Read NM's ex*tended cov*er*age of the con*tract here and here.Links to Serco con*tract (FOI ver*sion)Vol*ume 1, Part 1Vol*ume 1, Part 2Vol*ume 1, Part 3Vol*ume 1, Part 4Vol*ume 1, Part 5Vol*ume 1, Part 6Vol*ume 1, Part 7Vol*ume 2, Part 1Vol*ume 2, Part 2Vol*ume 2, Part 3Vol*ume 2, Part 4Vol*ume 2, Part 5[URL="http://newmatilda.com/media/Detention%20Services%20Contract%20Volume%202_Part6.pdf"]Vol*ume 2, Part 6

[/URL]http://antonyloewenstein.com/2011/11/09/...-revealed/[URL="http://newmatilda.com/media/Detention%20Services%20Contract%20Volume%202_Part6.pdf"]
[/URL]