Coronavirus: Security companies approached for Melbourne hotel quarantine via LinkedIn

WhatsApp messages between senior Victorian bureaucrats have revealed the chaos in which security companies to handle the hotel quarantine program were chosen.

Melbourne’s Crowne Plaza hotel was used as a quarantine hotel. Picture: Wayne Taylor

WhatsApp messages between senior Victorian bureaucrats have revealed the chaos in which security companies to handle the hotel quarantine program were chosen, with officials using Linked­In to contact executives at the firms despite contact inform­ation being available on an internal government website.

The messages show the thought processes behind­ choosing­ security companies for the bungled hotel quarantine prog­ram, including­ difficulty in contacting­ senior executive­s from MSS.

“They‘re in LinkedIn but you need premium,” one bureaucrat wrote.

“Looks like you can try premium for free to send messages,” was one response. Another asked: “How much is premium? Is it useful if I upgrade?”

Working as a team, the group later decided to rotate the free membership. “We should all do this in staggered measures over the coming months so at any time at least one of us can message someone,” was one post.

In a subsequent post, the group agreed the appropriate format for a message sent via LinkedIn would be: “Vic govt would like an urgent discussion around security services linked to new quarantine regulations.”

The group also decided to reach out to Murray Savage, sales manager at the International Security Training Academy. “He‘s connected every­where in the security world,” a bureaucrat wrote.

“I reckon he‘ll have a lot of good connections and could help with intros,” was a reply.

Following this flurry of activ­ity, one of the officials suggested reviewing established contacts “to avoid the cold approach”.

Internal government website Buying for Victoria had contact details for MSS, SECUREcorp and Wilson Security, as well as a security services government contact at the Department of Treasury and Finance.

Criteria for the firms approached varied: Unified’s contract to run Dan Murphy’s security in regional Victoria was considered a sign of “capability”.

The messages warned of the need to be careful with security firms, as it was a “cowboy industry” with “heaps of cash work”.