ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County has a multimillion-dollar contract with a private company for security across its courthouses, community centers and medical clinics. An audit released Thursday by the comptroller’s office revealed some concerns about what the company is doing.
Allied Universal signed a $5.7 million contract in 2019 to provide private security guards across Orange County. That is also when the comptroller’s office released a slew of recommendations via an audit to Allied to ensure quality services.
The contract is now worth over $9 million and expires at the end of the month, according to the report.
From May 2022 to April 2023, the comptroller’s team then went to test the security company to confirm if it was following those recommendations.
“When we do an audit, especially an important audit like this, we like to go back and do a what we call a follow-up audit,” Comptroller Phil Diamond said. “That’s to make sure the things that should have been done actually got done and it was disappointing to see that a lot — even though there was some improvement — all the things that should have been done weren’t done.”
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According to the report, Thursday’s audit revealed that some issues which were previously addressed were still happening.
For example, 35% of the guards working at the X-ray machines failed to find dangerous items such as a revolver frame, Chinese throwing stars and a baton. To add on, the report also states that Allied failed to update the county if security guards were terminated.
“I think the most important finding is the fact that security guards aren’t getting the screening that they ought to get,” Diamond said. “One of the things that’s important, and I think this is probably true in any job, is you need to be trained. You need good training. You need to be tested. Otherwise, you’re not going to be doing your job as well as you can be doing it, or you should be doing it.”
On the other hand, the audit also pointed out a new concern: some buildings were left without any guards. This was during a two-week period when the comptroller’s office was monitoring those places which included:
- East Orange Community Center
- Holden Heights Community Center
- John Bridges Community Center
- Pine Hills Community Center
- Youth and Family Services.
The report recommends that a separate contract should be made to ensure that these locations have security — unless it is not needed.
Meanwhile, The Facilities Management Division for Orange County responded to the audit in a letter on Feb. 21. The letter was sent to the comptroller’s office and mentioned that it is working on rewriting a new contract to address the new recommendations.
News 6 has reached out to Allied Universal for a statement and is awaiting a response.
“The county deserves to get what it’s paying for,” Diamond said.