Evidence turned up last September that ArmorGroup, a British company hired to guard the embassy, had allowed workers to get drunk, haze new employees, sexually harass Afghan nationals, misuse private property and bring a prostitute into Camp Sullivan, where they were stationed.

 

After learning of the debauchery, the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security fired 10 ArmorGroup employees and decided to cancel the third year of the company’s contract. But until the remainder of the deal expires on July 1, the government needs someone to mind the rest of the contractor’s work. Thus, the decision to hire another company to watch over the situation.

 

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri), chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight, was not pleased with the State Department’s solution. “I am concerned that the steps taken by the department may not go far enough to ensure that there is sufficient transparency, accountability and oversight of the contract,” she wrote in a letter to Patrick Kennedy, undersecretary of state for management. “In particular, I am troubled by the decision to employ a contractor to provide contract oversight for the department.”

 

ArmorGroup was purchased in 2008 by G4S (formerly known as Group 4 Security), which just signed a three-year $105 million contract to protect the British Embassy in Kabul

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

State Will Hire Contractor to Supervise Private Embassy Guards (by Robert Brodsky, Government Executive)

Questions for the Record Submitted to Ambassador Eric Boswell by Senator Claire McCaskill (#1) (Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs) (pdf)

POGO Letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Regarding U.S. Embassy in Kabul (Project on Government Oversight)

G4S Afghan Contract Raises Profile of Britain’s Security Industry (by David Robertson, Times of London)