Serco exits Oman
It's probably of no interest to newsbriefsoman readers, but I was just a bit puzzled as to why Oman's Ministry of Defence told Serco and its local partner, the Bahwan Engineering Group, only in February this year that it was not intending to proceed with construction of the Joint Technical College, Oman, virtually four years to the day after the company had been told that it was the preferred bidder. A contract had been expected within three to four months of the 2004 announcement.
Serco has a prestigious international reputation and has built up its business thanks to UK government policies of privatisation and outsourcing. The company has been described as the most admired service company in Britain.
Originally created as a UK subsidiary of Radio Corporation of America in support of the cinema industry, RCA Services Ltd changed its name to Serco in 1987. The company has been prominent in defence services in the UK for over 40 years. Just under half of its business is in overseas projects. The Oman Military Training College would have been a jewel in its crown. Worth 1.4 billion US dollars, the 50/50 Serco-Bahwan partnership would have been a 30 year private finance initiative to design, build and operate the JTC.
Serco apparently had ample background and experience to undertake the project since it manages facilities at the Defence College of Management and Technology (DCMT) at MoD Shrivenham in UK. The lead academic partner at DCMT is Cranfield University which would also have been a delivery partner in JTC Oman, along with TAFE Western Australia (TAFEWA) & Edexcel International (UK). Oh yes, there is a legacy website about Oman's military technological college built in more optimistic times.
The company had been active in Oman in various spheres, sponsoring the BBC Young Musicians of the Year concert in 2006 and participating in the e-Games conference also in 2006. Professor Andrew Self OBE, who described the Merlin flight simulator, was apparently drawing up military and civilian vocational career programmes, from national diplomas to masters degrees, for the new college.
Read a summary of the proposed education and training programme anticipated by Education and Training International based at the University of Western Australia You can still see details of the proposed construction of the college.
So what happened? Why was the military and technical training college apparently abandoned? I hardly think it was simply cost, since Oman is not exactly short of funds at the moment.
The language of instruction would have been English. Would that have posed a problem when recruits are native Arabic speakers? I think it's easy to underestimate just how difficult it can be to raise language skills to an appropriate level.
Was there someone in Oman's Ministry of Defence or at other levels of government who felt that Serco's announcement in 2004 had pre-judged the final outcome?
Was it a veiled warning to the UK defence establishment that Oman did not depend on UK based support, since Serco also offers services to Britain's armed services? In 2007 Gulf News reported that the head of the British government's Defence Export Services Organisation was in positive mood about the outcome of talks with the Omani authorities. The delay in signing a contract was typical, apparently, of delays in UK negotiations of privately funded military service provision in general. Perhaps the Omanis got fed up with the protracted negotiations. Perhaps Serco had set the price too high?
You could even ask to what extent the British defence industry is intertwined with the company.
Has another overseas institution or nation offered alternative training? Is a regional GCC military college in the offing?
All fanciful conjectures to fuel any number of conspiracy theories.
Still, Serco doesn't depend on the Oman contract. It's just won the option to operate Dubai's new Metro system for ten years, probably based on its experience as franchise operator of London's Docklands Light Railway. Its partners in the bid might feel injured about what has happened though.
Serco has a prestigious international reputation and has built up its business thanks to UK government policies of privatisation and outsourcing. The company has been described as the most admired service company in Britain.
Originally created as a UK subsidiary of Radio Corporation of America in support of the cinema industry, RCA Services Ltd changed its name to Serco in 1987. The company has been prominent in defence services in the UK for over 40 years. Just under half of its business is in overseas projects. The Oman Military Training College would have been a jewel in its crown. Worth 1.4 billion US dollars, the 50/50 Serco-Bahwan partnership would have been a 30 year private finance initiative to design, build and operate the JTC.
Serco apparently had ample background and experience to undertake the project since it manages facilities at the Defence College of Management and Technology (DCMT) at MoD Shrivenham in UK. The lead academic partner at DCMT is Cranfield University which would also have been a delivery partner in JTC Oman, along with TAFE Western Australia (TAFEWA) & Edexcel International (UK). Oh yes, there is a legacy website about Oman's military technological college built in more optimistic times.
The company had been active in Oman in various spheres, sponsoring the BBC Young Musicians of the Year concert in 2006 and participating in the e-Games conference also in 2006. Professor Andrew Self OBE, who described the Merlin flight simulator, was apparently drawing up military and civilian vocational career programmes, from national diplomas to masters degrees, for the new college.
Read a summary of the proposed education and training programme anticipated by Education and Training International based at the University of Western Australia You can still see details of the proposed construction of the college.
So what happened? Why was the military and technical training college apparently abandoned? I hardly think it was simply cost, since Oman is not exactly short of funds at the moment.
The language of instruction would have been English. Would that have posed a problem when recruits are native Arabic speakers? I think it's easy to underestimate just how difficult it can be to raise language skills to an appropriate level.
Was there someone in Oman's Ministry of Defence or at other levels of government who felt that Serco's announcement in 2004 had pre-judged the final outcome?
Was it a veiled warning to the UK defence establishment that Oman did not depend on UK based support, since Serco also offers services to Britain's armed services? In 2007 Gulf News reported that the head of the British government's Defence Export Services Organisation was in positive mood about the outcome of talks with the Omani authorities. The delay in signing a contract was typical, apparently, of delays in UK negotiations of privately funded military service provision in general. Perhaps the Omanis got fed up with the protracted negotiations. Perhaps Serco had set the price too high?
You could even ask to what extent the British defence industry is intertwined with the company.
Has another overseas institution or nation offered alternative training? Is a regional GCC military college in the offing?
All fanciful conjectures to fuel any number of conspiracy theories.
Still, Serco doesn't depend on the Oman contract. It's just won the option to operate Dubai's new Metro system for ten years, probably based on its experience as franchise operator of London's Docklands Light Railway. Its partners in the bid might feel injured about what has happened though.
Comments
No comments yet