Mining companies must carefully consider the outsourcing of their mine security activities, stated dual-listed mining giant Anglo American protection services head Mandla Zembe during his presentation at business-to-business events organiser Fleming Gulf’s 2015 African Mine Security Summit, held in Johannesburg last month.

He said the greatest benefit of short-term outsourcing was that companies could hire an expert for a certain period without committing to long-term contracts, while the advantage of long-term outsourcing was that companies gained operational efficiencies and skills that would normally have been difficult to replicate in-house.

Zembe also stressed that mine management teams had to be allowed to evaluate the actions, practices and policies of security contractors.

He highlighted that some of the major advantages of outsourcing security had to do with cost savings such as a mining company not having to pay for sick leave and less administrative and budgeting work for the security department.

Zembe added that companies did not have to do background checks, buy patrol vehicles or pay for the insurance, fuel and licensing of security vehicles; the training, hiring and dismissal of officers were the responsibility of the company to which the work had been outsourced.

Other benefits included multilevel supervisory and management at no cost, shared liability insurance and fewer union problems; it was usually also easier to terminate the services of a subcontractor than to dismiss an employee on poor performance.

“For small companies, subcontracted guard services are better equipped to deploy an adequate number of patrol cars to cover a large service area,” added Zembe.

Outsourcing Disadvantages

A major disadvantage of outsourcing security activities was the high turnover of personnel, owing to poor salaries, with work conditions possibly compromising the policies of and procedures at mines, Zembe added.

He pointed out that, according to US audit, tax and advisory firm Blake & Associates, the turnover rate of personnel in contract security was very high at between 130% and 400% a year.

Outsourced security providers continued to work in silos and would generally not attempt to be part of company staff, Zembe added.

“Contract security personnel can also be easily bullied into allowing breaches of procedures and policies, which ultimately compromises companies’ security compliance efforts.”

Zembe stated that considering either in-house or contract security staff must involve specific management planning.
However, he stressed that, without complete and correct knowledge of their role, responsibilities and duties, as well as the company’s structure and business operation, neither in-house nor contract personnel could be expected to perform to the best of their abilities.

“It could come down to cost, skills and time,” Zembe said, adding that the safety and security of personnel, assets, information and products had to be ensured, regardless of the type of security services a mine chose to use.