Controversies
ArmorGroup North America scandal
On June 11, 2009, The Wall Street Journal reported that internal State Department documents deemed ArmorGroup security lapses at the US embassy in Kabul so severe as to render the compound in "jeopardy." Guard posts were found empty and unstaffed for hours at a time, among other problems. The article quoted staffers on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's contracting oversight panel.
On 1 September 2009, the Project On Government Oversight sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton which detailed allegations of misconduct by over 10% of the 450 employees of ArmorGroup guarding the embassy. There were claims also that the guards drank excessively and misbehaved whilst under the influence, did not speak English or Pashto (as they were largely Gurkhas) and had not been properly equipped to carry out their work. On 4 September 2009, the US State department announced that eight private security guards and some of their managers would be fired.
Several days later on September 10, the Project on Government Oversight offered further details on the company's problems with upholding its obligations at the embassy as outlined in a $189 million contract. A federal complaint was filed over the company's "serious and chronic under-staffing," the "language and communications violations committed by personnel," the "numerous instances of making false statements, misrepresentations and withholding information from the State," and "jeopardizing the safety of the guard force via the purchase of cheaper, sub-par armored vehicles." The report also said that ArmorGroup demonstrated "a pattern of blatant and longstanding violations" leading to a "pervasive breakdown" in discipline, morale and security at the embassy.
On Sept. 14th, witnesses and panelists at a Commission on Wartime Contracting hearing urged the U.S. State Department to cancel its Afghanistan contract with ArmorGroup for massive failures, deficiencies and "egregious violations."
On 27 October 2010, the Department of State's Office of Inspector General released a report finding that AGNA had not been able to recruit, train, or manage the Kabul Embassy Security Force ("KESF") at the staffing level or the quality required by its contract with the Department of State. They also found that AGNA had employed Nepalese guards without verifiable experience, training, or background investigations in violation of its contract.
In July 2011, the US Department of Justice announced that ArmorGroup paid the US government $7.5 million to resolve issues stemming from false claims the company made regarding charges for its services at the embassy. The payment also covered claims that its employees violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), and that management was aware of this, as well as allegations that ArmorGroup misrepresented the prior work experience of 38 national guards it hired. Additional allegations stated that the company had failed to comply with Foreign Ownership, Control and Influence mitigation requirements on the contract, as well as those outlined in a separate contract to provide guard services at a US naval support facility in Bahrain.
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As of 15 June 2012, AGNA has turned over security responsibilities for the embassy to Aegis Defense Services LLC, an American branch of Aegis Ltd.
Afghanistan scandals
On Oct. 7, 2010, the Senate Armed Services Committee released a report detailing how ArmorGroup turned to local, Afghan warlords to provide most of the guard force at a US airbase in the Herat Province in Western Afghanistan. The report included statements from many, including an army sergeant, who said that one of the warlords used by the company "would provide money because of his contracting jobs with ArmorGroup. He had a lot of money from that, and he would give that money to Taliban commanders, and they in turn would buy weapons and ammo, whatever they needed."
According to Gordon's lawsuit on November 8, 2007, ArmorGroup North America deputy program manager Jimmy Lemon informed James Gordon, a former ArmorGroup director of operations, and Puja Power, the acting director of human resources, that AGNA's armorer (the official in charge of the upkeep of small arms, machine guns and ammunition) was not properly performing his duties and had recently been forcibly removed during work hours from a brothel in Kabul. Gordon instructed Power to initiate action to terminate him at once. Gordon knew that the procurement of commercial sex acts by AGNA employees violated the laws of the United States and the Kabul Embassy contract. He was concerned both because the frequenting of brothels by AGNA personnel raised security concerns about the guard force's ability to safeguard the US Embassy and because it was well known that young Chinese girls were trafficked to Kabul for commercial sexual exploitation, in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The act and its implementing regulations prohibit contractors, like ArmorGroup and their employees, from engaging in severe forms of trafficking in persons and from procuring commercial sex acts during the period of performance of the contract. According to the US State Department's 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report, Afghanistan is a destination for women and girls from China, Iran and Tajikistan trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. Afghan children are also trafficked within the country for sexual exploitation.
