DOHA: The authorities have launched a crackdown on private security companies which fail to comply with the required standards.
The Public Security Department at the Ministry of Interior is set to begin an investigation into all private security companies to check if they are following the rules and has already cancelled the licence of a security company which violated the law by employing unqualified security personnel, despite several warnings.
An Arabic daily quoted Brigadier Ahmad Jassim Al Jefferi, Director of the Public Security Department at the Ministry of Interior, as saying: “We have a complete list of private security companies and we will begin to investigate their activities soon.”
“Any company which fails to employ qualified staff will not get their licence renewed,” he warned.
He explained that the company which has been closed down was given several warnings and the staff did not cooperate with investigations.
“They had employed security men who are not under their sponsorship and not properly trained. Some of them were carpenters and cooks,” said Brigadier Al Jefferi.
“They were warned many times. The staff of this company refused to cooperate with the officials during investigation,” he further said.
There are 14 companies providing security services for offices, ministries and other establishments. The Public Security Department is in charge of issuing licences for security companies and supervise their activities according to law number 19, 2009.
According to the law, employees of private security companies should be under their sponsorship and shouldn’t be doing any other job. The company should have a Qatari owner who has a character clearance certificate. Interior Ministry should give clearance to establish a security company and the ownership cannot be changed without an approval by the ministry. It should also have a director, who is a former officer in Qatari police or armed forces.
Every private security company should have its own slogan, uniform and identity cards, which should be different from other security forces.
All security personnel should have basic educational qualification, work experience of not less than two years, a security training certificate, and must be able to converse in Arabic and English, aged between 30 and 40 years and height should not be less than 160cm.
The law also gives all rights to the Ministry of Interior to suspend the licence if they violate the law. Also, the law has specified imprisonment of not less than one month and not more than one year and fines not less than QR20,000 and not more than QR100,000 for violations.
The private security companies can appeal against such ministerial decisions.
THE PENINSULA
