Rose Partners, a Private Security Company (PSC) based in UK, has recently tried to gain a foothold in Libya. Its secretive approach and suspicious relations with government officials depict a dim overall picture. What is Rose Partners role in Libya?
Putting at risk lives
The output of the PSC has been very poor, some relevant issues emerged, such as the low quality of training. “Training programs are very generic and do not teach useful tools” reveals Ahmed, an officer involved in the training. Ahmed adds that “Rose Partners instructors deliver programs that appear nice in slides but are useless for the real work”. Police officers fear that the low quality training could put at risk their lives while facing insidious booby traps or armed militias. Besides that, it seems Rose Partners teaches training technique not up to date, forcing the Libyan Government to sign new contracts.
Rose Partners and suspicious contracts
Procurement is a field in which Rose Partners showed confidence in. In fact, PSCs are known to provide low level of service in exchange of lucrative contracts; Rose Partners appears not to be an exception.
A meeting between Libyan government officials and representatives of the British security company Rose Partners.
An official belonging to the Libyan Ministry of the Interior affirms that “the Ministry of Interior has contacted several PSCs and finally we chose the Rose Partners. However we do not have any hard evidence of the PSC performance. We know that the Rose Partners staff is made up of British former police personnel, that’s all. Do you think we chose Rose Partners for their nice internet site? Rose Partners is almost unknown to security field personnel but “they know” how to convince public officers. They can be very generous”.
Rose Partners knows how to convince government officials
PSCs have always used bribes to “convince” government officials to accept contracts provided. The role of Rose Partners in Libya could have negative effects, depriving security forces of essential tools and further destabilizing the current security situation.
