By David Isenberg

In the aftermath of the report by the Project on Government Oversight regarding drunken antics by ArmorGroup contractors in Kabul, who had the responsibility of guarding the American embassy, the Commission on Wartime Contracting held a hearing on Sep. 14 focused on the U.S. State Department’s selection, management, and oversight of security and other contractors in support of the Kabul Embassy.

One of the witnesses at the hearing was Doug Brooks, founder and head of IPOA, the Association of the Stability Operations Industry, formerly known as the International Peace Operations Association, which is a leading trade group for private military and security contractors.

During the course of the hearing Mr. Brooks had this exchange with Mr. Henke, one of the commissioners.

Commissioner Henke.  Okay.  I am trying to understand if your organization is really, my sense is, a Good Housekeeping Stamp of Approval without the good housekeeping, and I am not being facetious there.  I really want to understand what teeth are in your code of conduct. You go to great lengths in your statement to talk about your standards of conduct committee and how anyone can file a complaint.  That is anyone, right?  Any member company?  Any journalist?  Any NGO?

Mr. Brooks.  You can file a complaint based on our code of the conduct.

Commissioner Henke.  Has anyone yet?  Since September 1st, since POGO went public with this gross misconduct, has any complaint been filed against ArmorGroup, WSI or Wackenhut?

Mr. Brooks.  At this point, we do not reveal those complaints until later in the process.

Commissioner Henke.  You will not tell us here today if anyone has filed a complaint?

Mr. Brooks.  I would rather not.  Yes.

Commissioner Henke.  You will not tell us or you would rather not?

Mr. Brooks.  I would rather not, to be quite frank.  We try and keep the system–

Commissioner Henke.  Have you filed a complaint as the head of the organization?

Mr. Brooks.  I do not file complaints.  As the head of the organization, I will not.

Commissioner Henke.  Okay.  I am filing a complaint now.

Mr. Brooks.  Okay.  I will send you information on filing, on the filing process.

Commissioner Henke.  Now I am in your system, and I want to see what happens with this code of conduct.

Mr. Brooks.  When you are in the system, you will be informed as the complaint moves forward.

Commissioner Henke.  I am filing a complaint against ArmorGroup for their gross misconduct and the violation of your organization’s code of conduct.

Commissioner Ervin.  Bob, can I just interject just quickly? I would like you to answer the question for the record.  I understand if you do not want to do it.  I would like you to answer whether there is presently on file a complaint against either ArmorGroup, WSI or Wackenhut.

Mr. Brooks.  To be honest, I would have to actually check the policy on that, but I would prefer–

Commissioner Ervin.  Check the policy on whether there is a complaint?

Mr. Brooks.  No, no, on the revealing of the complaint if there is a complaint because–

Commissioner Ervin.  I would like for you to just take a minute before we end this hearing, check the policy and get back to us.

Mr. Brooks.  No.  You know what? I will tell you right now at the risk of annoying my membership, but there has been no complaint to date on ArmorGroup or Wackenhut.

Commissioner Henke.  No complaint to date at all?

Mr. Brooks.  No, but these complaints usually take some time before they actually do come in.  On our side, it is an ethics complaint rather than–

Commissioner Henke.  It has been 13 days, and no one, much less a member company, has said, there is something wrong here, I am going to complain?

Mr. Brooks.  That is correct, sir.

Commissioner Henke.  How many members do you have?

Mr. Brooks.  We have 64 members, sir.

Commissioner Henke.  Sixty-four member companies, no one has said a word?

Mr. Brooks.  Well, they have said a word.  There have been lots of discussions about it.

Commissioner Henke.  Well, I am sure they are talking about it.

Mr. Brooks.  Nobody has filed a formal complaint.

Commissioner Henke.  Nobody has filed a complaint.  I just think that is egregious.  I mean this distinction of–

Mr. Brooks.  Keep in mind, most of the complaints come from outside the association.

Commissioner Henke.  As mine just did.

Mr. Brooks.  Yes.

Commissioner Henke.  Thank you.

Mr. Brooks.  And, I am going to send you information so you can make a formal filing, and we will address that as we would any other complaint.

It is now nearly three months since Mr. Henke filed his complaint. What has IPOA done to address it? Not much apparently. In response to my query Clark Irwin, Director of Communications at the Commission, replied via email on Dec. 8 that “Commissioner Henke says he has had no contact from IPOA except for an acknowledgment that they had received his complaint.”

Tags: ArmorGroup, IPOA, Isenberg, POGO

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