KEY POINTS:
The Government should review all contracts with security firms after the embarrassment of discovering the Defence Ministry had offered a contract to a company that had previously employed guards with serious criminal convictions, New Zealand First MP Ron Mark says.
Last week, Defence Minister Phil Goff announced a contract for eight security guards for the Joint Force Headquarters in the Wellington suburb of Trentham would be referred back to a tender evaluation team.
New Zealand's overseas military deployments are co-ordinated from Joint Forces Headquarters, a building which is a high security facility.
Wellington firm Specialised Guard Services had been approved as preferred supplier for the contract. However, SGS was at the centre of a major controversy last year when Mr Mark disclosed in Parliament that SGS had provided two unlicensed guards - one with rape and assault convictions and the other with a dishonesty conviction - to work at Wellington police station.
Two weeks ago, Mr Mark again used Parliament to raise the issue of SGS being the frontrunner for the contract, a move which saw Mr Goff hurriedly reconvene the officials working on the tender process to reconsider their recommendation.
Mr Mark said the Government used hundreds of security guards across all government departments. They often came into contact with sensitive material or worked in places where personal responsibility was vital, such as hospitals or police stations.
Mr Mark also called for urgency to be given to Government plans to review rules covering the security industry.
The laws were clearly outdated when security work was much more complex and wide-ranging than the legislation regulating the industry had envisaged.
The Government has said it hoped to introduce a replacement for the 1974 legislation covering security guards and private investigators this year.
