Security crucial for business: CEO

The Citizen on Sunday Reporter Sturmius Mtweve met with Maj Tony Sugden, the chief executive officer of Warrior Security Ltd. Excerpts...
QUESTION: What is Warrior Security Ltd all about? What are your specialities?

ANSWER: We believe that creating a safe environment enables people and business to thrive and contributes to socio-economic development.

We provide integrated security solutions tailored to our clients, including analysis, assessments and reporting (A2R), location & tracking solutions (GPS) as well as security systems design and installation (SSDI).

By our strength and integrity we strive to be the best, harnessing our agility and adaptability, and by continuous improvement of our people and processes.

Warrior Security combines global expertise and superior local knowledge, innovative technology and outstanding human resources.

Currently, the world is going digital and offenders are using sophisticated ways of committing criminal offences. How have you been dealing with this technological challenge, including cybercrime?

You would be surprised at how unsophisticated crime is in Africa. This is because opportunities abound, there is ineffective law and order and many people lack a moral compass between right and wrong. Good security is dependent on a layered approach in which systems and security infrastructure are underpinned by good procedures.

For that reason, we find that the vast majority of our solutions are achieved through intellectual rigour, common sense and a disciplined approach to basic procedures and protocols.

This being said, we seek to employ and deploy technology and innovation wherever we can as these will bolster and enhance our common sense approach.

Oil and gas mining sectors as well as post-conflict countries like South Sudan need specialised security services. Why is this case?

Mining, oil & gas (MOG) companies are always exploring new frontiers and often find themselves in challenging and often dangerous environments. Similarly, post conflict countries are only just emerging from strife and the breakdown of law and order.

With both scenarios, it is imperative that security companies have the capability, credibility and capacity themselves to survive and provide meaningful services.

Take, for example, what happened recently in Mtwara. People took to rioting because of their perception that the benefits of the oil and gas discoveries would bypass them. This led to a few days of instability and insecurity, and the gas has not even started flowing.

Worse still, in some countries like Southern Sudan, it can result in violence and ruined oil and gas equipment or pipelines. This outcome adversely effects production which impacts on the economy.

Why did Warrior choose to work in post-conflict countries like South Sudan and their challenges?

In order to demonstrate that Warrior’s new methodology and approach was advantageous to our clients we knew we would have to test it in the most extreme and challenging environments.

We succeeded and our client base is testimony to our success. Our ability to work in rural areas successfully is now a key competitive advantage for Warrior today, particularly in the extractive sector.

What are challenges of working in such an environment?

We face external and internal challenges. Externally, Warrior is as prone as anybody to political risks, which is very problematic, particularly in post conflict areas, as well as in areas such as non-tariff barriers, indirect and hidden taxes, an overly cumbersome and often obstructive bureaucracy and poor infrastructure.

Internally, we battle with poor education and perhaps worst of all selfish interests, which mainly manifest themselves in dubious ethics and poor integrity. In the case of the latter, this is so endemic that it is our top priority and I can say that a lot of our recent impact has come about because we have strong programmes to eradicate it.

What is the current situation of security services provision in these sectors of the economy in the countries you have been operating?

The current situation in our view is that it is fragmented, under regulated, and focused on price at the expense of quality.

We were recently informed that in Tanzania there were 705 security companies operating, the vast majority of which operate below all government mandated minimum wage and use of equipment. Improvement in security is ultimately left to a small cadre of outstanding security companies which put performance before price.

The situation is unlikely to improve without some meaningful regulation. Until then, in order to succeed in this arena you must possess unparalleled integrity - you need to be committed and you will not survive if you are not agile and adaptable.

What should Tanzania expect, in terms of security from Warrior in its recently discovered large quantity of oil and gas deposits in the southern part?

Tanzania has been a land of huge potential for many years and is blessed with copious natural resources, the most recent of which is oil and gas. We want to see Tanzania and more specifically Tanzanians benefit directly from these resources. Warrior enables people and business to thrive and contributes to social and economic development.

A profitable client is a happy client and if we can enable that, we are contributing to more proceeds from taxation and company largesse.

We provide direct local employment and nurture and develop our employees to grow and succeed ultimately leading to better education, social advancement and prosperity. The cycle comes back in improved security for clients. We want Tanzanians to succeed.

What is the current state of oil and mining security in terms of demand and availability of specialised security services in the region?

It is true that investors need a return on their investment and that means protecting against accidents, fraud, theft and collusion, which is where security companies can play a meaningful part.

However, a significant measure of a security company’s success is its ability to increase client profitability by impacting positively on health, safety, security and environmental issues.

There are no shortages of security companies in the region and from abroad. But we feel that the approach is usually not new. Typically, security services focus on target hardening (razor wire, walls) detection (more guards, technology, infrared CCTV cameras).

These are most probably very necessary, but we sense that there is a need for more rigour. In order to deter and detect, the security must be credible. In essence, what is needed is a change of mind-set.

Health and safety was once completely ignored in Tanzania and indeed flaunted, but it is now deeply ingrained in all MOGs: a change brought about by the companies themselves.

How many employees Warrior so far has since it launched its services in the region?

Combined in East Africa over 3,000 people and in Tanzania close to 1,000.

What remarkable achievements has Warrior recorded in providing security services in oil and gas as well as in the post-conflict countries.

At one mining operation, we were able to reduce theft, considerably increased safety awareness, and added CCTV monitoring. Primarily, we accomplished this with a new ethics training programme designed to encourage loyalty to the company and clients alike.

This resulted in more whistleblowing and which led to a reduction in theft cases. At a gas facility we were commended for ensuring a high level of professionalism in both security as well as site health and safety work.

As a result, they felt the overall loss of materials due to theft was kept at an absolute minimum. Importantly, considerable praise went to the ability of our Tanzanian field officers to work together with both the site management as well as the subcontractors on site.
should harness the potential and deliver better infrastructure especially power, road and rail networks.

The combined population of the countries in which we operate is 170 million people, a fantastic market for growth but I believe it is imperative that we use the potential to drive up productivity through better health and education and drive down costs by improving on the costs of living and of doing business.

Governments would do well to concentrate on cogent policies, the establishment of proper law and order and infrastructure, leaving businesses to deliver better food, products and better returns.