By Omar Anderson, Gleaner WriterFIFTY-FOUR PRIVATE security companies were delisted last year because of mergers, competition and failure to produce the required documents for licensing.
The information is contained in the annual report of the Private Security Regulation Authority.
The report, which was tabled in Parliament recently, also noted there were 231 registered companies on the Authority's records. Of this number, 161 had their licences renewed while there were 19 newly-registered companies.
Accounting for the drop in the number of security companies, Wesley Moss, executive director of the Authority, told The Gleaner yesterday that citizens are resorting to more affordable means to protect themselves.
"More people are resorting to electronic devices and rapid response teams because they are cheaper ways of operating," he said.
Mr. Moss listed factors such as company mergers and the failure of some security establishments to get proper licensing documents, as grounds for delisting.
Despite this, the report noted that the Authority received a 78 per cent overall compliance with 180 of the 231 registered security companies.
"The principal reason for non-compliance is the inability of managers of companies to obtain current tax-compliance certificates as in all other aspects the requirements for renewal of licences were satisfied," the report stated.
Meanwhile, Mr. Moss said the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Ministry of National Security, the Jamaica Constabulary Force, and the Jamaica Society for Industrial Security two years ago, had contributed significantly to crime-fighting.
"It's working good, it has proved quite useful," he said.
He explained that he was unable to divulge too much information because of security reasons.
