Kuala Lumpur, Nov 6 – A centre which is able to provide complete and valid information, including an individual’s past criminal records, must be established during recruitment process.
Malaysian Community Crime Care & Safety (MCCCS) deputy president Datuk Othman Talib, when proposing the matter, said the centre was important to ensure prospective employees had clean records and could help avoid any problem in the future.
In addition, he said the centre would also expedite the recruitment of an employee.
“In employing a security guard, for example, the security company will send a copy of the prospective employee’s identification card to the National Registration Department (NRD) before the Home Ministry reviews it for criminal records.
“The government system is sophisticated, but if the procedure is weak by only using a copy of the identification card and the actual document is not seen, it provides an opening for abuse of the existing system,” he said when contacted by Bernama here Wednesday.
Othman, who was also a former Penang Police Chief, said it was also unfortunate that when the NRD verified that an individual’s name was listed in the database they would then send the name for verfication with the Home Ministry without checking the authenticity of the identification card used.
He said when an individual’s details reached the Home Ministry, there would not be any criminal record listed because the copy of the identification card used was faked or under another person’s identity.
“Therefore the government needs to review these weaknesses and improve the existing system, for example, by setting up this centre so that employees working in our country are truly those with quality,” he said.
The Special Skill Security Services Sdn chairman said the centre would facilitate employees when they were asked to bring the original identification card of prospective employees for verification with NRD and Home Ministry staff there.
“The centre can also expedite the recruitment process compared to now, whereby companies wait between three to six months to find out if a person can be hired or not,” he said.
Concurring with Othman’s suggestion, Paradise Security Services Sdn Bhd managing director Mohamad Nasim Jabir said owners of security companies like himself did not have access to verify the identity of security guards they wished to employ.
“The waiting period of up to six months is too long for us. There is a possibility that this long waiting period is detrimental as such companies are forced to hire workers whose identity we cannot verify,” he said.
In the recent case of a security guard involved in crime, attention was directed to the identification card of the suspect which police investigations found to be fake and under the identity of another person.
Within a month, two cases involving security guards were reported, one involving a an Ambank Subang Jaya branch officer who was shot using a pump gun by the security guard who wanted to rob the outlet on Oct 23.
Two weeks later, a uniformed security guard pointed the weapon at four jewellery shop workers before he fled with 100 necklaces from the KL Festival shopping mall in Setapak were he worked.
– Bernama
