BACKGROUND: This report provides Department of Defense (DoD) contractor personnel numbers for 2nd quarter Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) and current status of efforts underway to improve management of contractors accompanying United States (U.S.) Forces. It includes data on DoD contractor personnel deployed in Afghanistan, Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (OFS); Iraq and Syria, Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR); and the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR).
KEY POINTS: During 2nd quarter FY20, USCENTCOM reported approximately 52,142 contractor personnel supporting DoD in the USCENTCOM AOR, an increase of approximately 1,678 from the previous quarter.
o Contractor Posture: Approximately 27,641 DoD contractors supported operations in Afghanistan during 2nd quarter FY20, an increase of 4.1% from 1st quarter FY20. Local Nationals comprise 21.2% of total contractor force; 21,788 US/TCN remain in Afghanistan.
o A total of 2,973 Private Security Contractors (PSCs) personnel were supporting USCENTCOM operations in Afghanistan as of 2nd quarter FY20. A detailed summary is provided in the table below.
In September, private security firm G4S confirmed it was to cease operating the scandal-hit Brook House centre as well as Tinsley House, which are both close to Gatwick Airport in West Sussex, once its current contract with the Government ends.
The company will continue to run some prisons and operate security contracts.
On Thursday, the Home Office announced that outsourcing giant Serco will take over running the two centres on May 21.
Last year the firm was fined £19 million after it overcharged the Government to carry out electronic tagging, prompting an audit of its contracts.
Two of its former directors are being prosecuted and are due to stand trial next year accused of fraud and false accounting.
The Home Office said the contract, which will last until 2028 and could be extended to 2030, was awarded after an “open and rigorous procurement process” and there are “ambitious plans” to improve the two Gatwick centres.
When it takes over Brook House, the Home Office said the company has promised to:
– “Substantially” increase the number of staff, including those responsible for welfare;
– Give detainees access to educational activities through the week;
– Train staff in “safeguarding and vulnerability”.
In September 2017, the BBC’s Panorama programme broadcast undercover footage showing alleged assaults, humiliation and verbal abuse of detainees by officers at the G4S-run centre.
Last year inspectors found there was “no culture of abuse” among current staff at Brook House, but there was still a raft of improvements that needed to be made.
In July, the National Audit Office found that G4S made £14.3 million in profit from Brook House between 2012 and 2018.
A month later the Home Office failed in a bid to challenge a High Court ruling over the terms of an investigation into the alleged abuse at Brook House.
Following the Panorama programme, two former detainees – identified only as MA and BB – successfully argued that a full independent investigation into “systemic and institutional failures” was needed “to ensure fact-finding, accountability and lesson-learning”.
Fourteen members of G4S staff were dismissed or resigned in the wake of the broadcast and the Home Office asked the Prisons and Probation Imbudsman (PPO) to carry out an investigation.
The inquiry has been delayed pending the legal action.
According to GAO, SOC LLC, of Chantilly, Virginia, protests the issuance of a task order to Janus Global Operations, LLC, of Lenoir City, Tennessee, under request for proposals (RFP) No. 19AQMM19R0112, issued by the Department of State for protective guard services, static guard services, and specialized security services to be provided at the U.S. Mission Somalia.
SOC argues that the agency misevaluated proposals and made an unreasonable source selection decision.
