KUALA LUMPUR: Even as the security industry continues to be monitored, additional measures have been put in place to raise the quality of our guards and make the companies they work for more accountable to their clients.
The steps involve the training of guards and management courses for board members of security firms.
From next year, security firms must have at least 10% of their Malaysian guards trained and certified by the police before the Home Ministry would even consider renewing their company licences.
Industry sources said the authorities might push the requirement to 20% by 2016.
For now, the ministry wants up to 11,500 Malaysian guards trained under the Certified Security Guards (CSG) police programme by year-end.
The ministry vets the guards before they undergo a six-day course at police academies where they learn how to handle firearms, first aid and fire fighting, and are lectured on the relevant laws.
The seventh series of the training concluded last week with 1,586 local guards graduating nationwide, including 136 women.
So far, 4,200 guards have been trained.
“The programme is in line with our 2015 directive for all security firms to ensure that at least 10% of their Malaysian guards have been trained for us to consider renewing their licences,” said ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Mohammad Khalid Shariff.
The ministry has also made it mandatory for all board members of security firms to attend an annual management course for them to have their licences renewed.
“With these initiatives, the ministry hopes to check the use of untrained, illegal immigrants as security guards and stop other activities that violate the Private Agencies Act 1971.
“We will not compromise and will take stern action against any security firm that has been found to have flouted our directives or the law,” he added.
The first course in the series of CSG training was held in May this year.
There had been several cases of security guards going rogue.
The most high profile incident occurred in October last year when a guard shot dead a bank officer and robbed the bank he was supposed to be guarding.
In a crackdown on the industry that followed, the authorities detained 659 illegal immigrant security guards in an audit from Sept 1, 2013, to June 23 this year and revoked the licences of eight firms and issued final warnings to 25 others.
On Sept 1, the ministry ordered all security firms and their guards to “physically show up” at the National Registration Department to have their identifications checked and biometrics verified.
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tunku Jaafar said the overall vetting process was ongoing.
There are more than 237,000 guards in 772 registered companies nationwide. Of this, the Security Services Association of Malaysia said 200,000 were Malaysians.
Association adviser Datuk Shaheen Mirza Habib understands that the Home Ministry is planning to collaborate with a private company in Nepal to train guards there for a month before sending them to Malaysia.
“I am told that they will undergo anther round of training here,” he added.
Nepalese ex-servicemen are the only foreigners allowed to work as security guards in Malaysia.
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