Private security for The Spar

[Trevor Hughes]

I cannot recall a time I was at the Spar at closing time at 9pm that I did not see OBSID foorpatrollers hanging about the passageway.  Tonight was no exception.   I left Spar after 9pm and two patrolled were  waiting in the passageway.  I observed for 6 minutes till the passageways iron roller was closed.

A green 2 litre soda bottle and bag of food was handed to the 2 guards whom then proceeded to physically help roll down and lock the rollers of the spar and tops.  Who knows how much longer tonight they were distracted from what I presume is their job of patrolling the whole if Obs.

I have observed this similar behaviour and payoff for years.  I have previously communicated to Ursula and probably the group as well.  Can't remember what reply I might have got.

Is this normal an acceptable practise?  I  many levels I feel this is wrong and needs to be controlled.

I have sent this message to the OBSID chat group,  the coo and the directors email group for all of your attention

Many thanks

Trev

[Justin Ashley]

Thanks for reporting Trev. This is of course totally unacceptable. 

Obsid guards are not allowed to accept gratuities for performing their duties and they are not allowed to perform private security whether for payment or not.

This fits the definition of corruption almost perfectly. Even thought it may seem a minor infraction tolerating this kind of thing just leads down the slippery slope. 

Unless a formal arrangement has been put in place with obsid management (which I doubt!) these guards should be charged. 

And I would say that charges should be laid against whoever authorized this at Spar too. 

Sent from my iPhone

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Observatory Improvement District - Chat" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to obsid-chat+...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to obsid...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/obsid-chat.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Hannes Bronkhorst]

Dear Trev,

Thank you for bringing this issue to my attention. I welcome the Communities input in regard to these situations.

I am definitely looking into their conduct and will be addressing this problem with the service provider ( Securitas) and Spar Management.

I do agree that we need to improve the performance and strive towards excellence.

Many Thanks,

Hannes.

[Trevor Hughes]

Thanks for the feed back

I just happened to leave the spar at about 8:45 pm last night and
decided to stick arround

There was obviously some incident as the was a police van with
flashing lights parked on the corner the obsid van was parked there as
well. But nothig of any real interest was happening that I coudl see.
Yet I saw 4 or 5 Obsid personell miling arround. There was also a car
attached to a tow truck on the other side of the road.

I too pictures to creat a timelione

Two of the guards I have pictured waiting in the passgaway - I did not
see any food been received (which is not say it wasn't)

At one stage the Spar security/employee came out with a big stick to
roll down the metal rollers and the OBSID guy with the red
balaclava/beanie grabbed it from him and seemed like he was going to
help again and I got in a position to photgraph it but he handed it
back the the spar guy who did all the rollers by himself.

I also walked through the passage and Alcino himself was there and I said hello.

Regardless, last night 4 or 5 obsid personal were milling about the
spar not really adding anything to the safety of Obs for at least the
30 minutes I was there and clearly for longer as they were there
before I arrived and after I left.

I include the picture so you can see my timeline of events. Each pic
is names with date and time



Trev