Despite a series of scandals, Dutch authorities continue to do business with security company G4S
A subsidiary of security giant G4S is involved in human rights violations in Kenya. G4S has also been embroiled in controversy in other countries. This is why several pension funds decided to divest from the company. Nevertheless, Dutch government institutions recently concluded multi-million dollar contracts with G4S.
March 18, 2025
By Ruth Hopkins, Zuza Nazaruk, Siem Eikelenboom
Quick read in 1 minute
- Security company G4S has been involved in several scandals in recent decades, ranging from assaults to corruption. At a site in Kenya, where a subsidiary of G4S Netherlands is active, several violent incidents have been reported.
- G4S is the largest private security company in the Netherlands. Despite extensive and well-documented human rights violations and other abuses, various government institutions contract with G4S, including the Tax and Customs Administration, the governmental prison service and various municipalities.
- Meanwhile, a growing number of large investors – particularly pension funds – are deciding to divest from G4S and its parent company Allied Universal. The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), decided to divest citing G4S’s “systematic human rights abuses” against workers in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
- In the Netherlands, the Rabobank Pension Fund recently decided to divest. Six other Dutch pension funds still have bonds in G4S or Allied Universal.
- This research was conducted by Follow the Money and Spit , in collaboration with WOZ Magazine (Switzerland), The Nation (Kenya), ZAM Magazine and The Africa Report.
Shee Mbimbi lies in bed. A villager films him and zooms in on his left leg, which is covered in bite wounds from ankle to knee. For years the villagers tried to report assault and violence on the land in Denyenye to the police. The village is about a one-hour drive from Mombasa, on the south coast of Kenya. For years, the police ignored the locals. This is why the villagers know they need hard evidence of the abuse, otherwise no one will believe them.
On 29 August last year, Mbimbi ventured into the forest to collect firewood, an important source of energy for the local population. Guards with security company G4S spotted Mbimbi and set their dog on him.
“They told me to warn the other villagers. Next time they encountered someone gathering firewood, the dogs will bite that person to death. They also told me not to report the dog bites to the police.”
Because Mbimbi cannot afford medical help, his wound went untreated for a year.
Recently, after NGOs provided funding for medical assistance, a doctor assessed the wound; and concluded that the sepsis had seeped into the bone. This could lead to the amputation of Mbimbi’s leg.
The forest is part of a 1,500-hectare piece of land that cement producer Bamburi claims to have leased since 1954; initially from the then British colonial government and later from the Kenyan government.
Bamburi has never developed commercial activities on the land. The local people – the Digo tribe – claim this is ‘Chikuyumtole’, their traditional ancestral land. For centuries they have cultivated it, grazed their cattle, collected firewood and fished in the ocean. After Bamburi appeared, the villagers were brutally expelled. Since 2005, this has been done by G4S guards with dogs. Mbimbi is not their only victim.
Bamburi has been unable to produce the original 1954 lease certificate despite repeated requests from Spit and Follow the Money. The Kenyan Ministry of Lands was only able to provide title deeds for one block of the land and a letter about another block. However, the dimensions and other details do not match the information provided by Bamburi. Holcim in Switzerland, Bamburi’s parent company, states: ‘Bamburi Cement owns and has full legal title to all four blocks.’ Local residents dispute this, claiming that Bamburi stole the land.
Regularly controversial
G4S guards in Kenya have been in the news before. In early October, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism published an investigation into their presence on a Del Monte pineapple farm in Kenya.
A man who was mistaken for a pineapple thief was beaten with sticks. He begged the guards to take him to a police station. The guards confiscated his motorbike and forced him to walk barefoot to a house several kilometres away, where the beatings continued. Del Monte had hired G4S in March 2024 after it fired 200 of its own controversial guards, for misconduct and murder.
G4S, originally British, was acquired in 2021 for 3.8 billion pounds by the American private security company Allied Universal, which is active in around 90 countries. With 800,000 employees, it is the world’s largest private security contractor. In 2023, the company had a record turnover of more than 20 billion dollars. The two largest shareholders are the American private equity fund Warburg Pincus and the Canadian pension fund Caisse de Dépòt et Placement du Quebec (CDPQ). Together they hold 73 percent of the shares.
G4S in the Netherlands
At the beginning of this century, G4S acquired two Dutch security companies: Randon Beveiliging and money transporter Geldnet. The Dutch branch of G4S is now the largest private security company in the country, employing approximately five thousand people.
G4S has many operating companies and various holding companies in the Netherlands, which house subsidiaries from a range of countries. The guards who attacked Mbimbi work for G4S Kenya Ltd, a subsidiary of G4S International Holdings 101 (NL) bv, based in Amsterdam. In a 2020 report on GS4, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) stated that this could indicate that the company is avoiding tax via Dutch holding companies.
G4S has won major tenders from Dutch government agencies in recent years, including the Tax and Customs Administration and the Prison Service. This is remarkable: the multinational is not only under fire in Kenya, but also in a number of other countries, for corruption and human rights violations. Major pension funds, such as the Dutch Rabobank Pension Fund, are withdrawing their investments in the company for this reason.
Scandals surrounding G4S
- In 2014 G4S got into hot water after it signed a multi-million dollar contract for various services at Guantanamo Bay, the US prison in southeastern Cuba, where human rights organizations Amnesty and Reprieve say human rights violations are taking place.
- In 2017, G4S sold its juvenile detention centres in the US following revelations of widespread misconduct by guards, ranging from sex with young people, abuse, falsification and destruction of documents, and intimidation of victims who wanted to report abuse.
- In 2018, the British government intervened after G4S guards failed to prevent Birmingham prison from descending into chaos – largely due to violence and drugs. That prison was taken back by the state. The same thing happened in 2013 at a G4S-run prison in South Africa, when the prison descended into chaos. Prisoners were forcefully medicated and tortured to death. In 2023, the state took over the prison after corrupt G4S staff allowed a prisoner to escape.
- In 2022, murderer and rapist Thabo Bester escaped from a South African G4S-run prison. G4S covered up his escape: guards set fire to his cell and G4S claimed Bester had committed suicide. Although the Prison Service confirmed the escape, G4S initially stuck to the suicide version. Bester was captured alive and well almost a year later .
- In 2023, G4S reached a settlement with the parents of an Iranian asylum seeker who was beaten to death by G4S guards at an Australian offshore reception center.
- In July this year, the Belgian Competition Authority imposed fines of more than 47 million euros on G4S, Securitas and Seris. These companies had made price agreements over the period 2008-2020 and determined among themselves who would win which public tender procedure and other contracts.
In the Netherlands, G4S plays an important role in the security of detention centers. In the fall of 2023, the company won a tender from the Dutch Prison and Probation Service for the security of all penitentiary institutions in the south of the country. That contract is worth almost 17 million euros.
Did G4S’s negative reputation play a role in awarding that tender?
The Ministry of Security and Justice makes a distinction between G4S international and the Dutch G4S Security Services BV, which was awarded the contract. When assessing companies that participate in public tenders, the ministry examines whether they have committed a ‘serious professional error’, which raises concerns about their integrity and reliability. According to the ministry, this was not the case with G4S Security Services.
G4S also works closely with the Ministry of Defence. A contract for the security of defence sites was extended by another three years on 1 January 2018. When Defence has a labour shortage or needs extra manpower during busy periods, G4S steps in. The Ministry of Defence employs G4S security guards.
On Tuesday 6 October 2020, the State Secretary of Defence, Barbara Visser (VVD), and G4S concluded an agreement on the exchange of personnel. Defence and G4S would jointly become employers of approximately 350 new reservists: they will be employed by G4S and will work for Defence 30 percent of their time. This would allow Defence to ‘substantially increase’ the number of reservists over the next ten years. ‘Depending on the differences in employment conditions, this collaboration has proven to be “a challenge” in practice,’ the ministry reports in response to questions from FTM.
The company has contracts with a range of government institutions, ranging from ministries to municipalities, with a total value of at least 80.7 million euros (including VAT: more than 97.7 million euros). This amount is probably higher, because Spit and Follow the Money were unable to determine the value of all contracts.
For example, G4S won a contract for the security at the provincial government building in the province Drenthe. In a response, the province states that it scrutinized criteria such as climate, environment, circularity, chain responsibility, social return and inclusion to assess the company during the tender process. G4S emerged as the most advantageous bidder at the time. No answer was given to questions concerning G4S scandals abroad.
G4S also won a tender for the security of the town hall in Alphen aan den Rijn. When asked how this aligns with the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy of the municipality, a spokesperson says that according to European and national tender rules, the municipality can only exclude the company on the basis of an irrevocable conviction for fraud, corruption or participation in a criminal organization: ‘And such an irrevocable judgment was not known at the time of the tender.’
Corporate structure of G4S in the Netherlands
G4S has approximately twenty companies in the Netherlands, ranging from holding companies to operating companies in the field of security, training and detection.
In July 2020, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) conducted a company scan of G4S’s corporate structure. At the time, the company was still British, listed on the London stock exchange and owned by investment funds from the US and the UK. At the time, SOMO counted more than six hundred branches in over 110 countries, including tax havens such as Mauritius, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands. These companies seemed to exist only to reduce G4S’s tax burden via the Dutch holdings, SOMO cautiously concluded. The exact details of these tax structures fell outside the scope of the company scan.
In addition to these holdings, G4S has subsidiaries in Amsterdam, Barendrecht and Zoetermeer that offer all kinds of security services. For example, G4S has contracts for security services with Rijkswaterstaat and the Central Bureau for Driving Licences . The company also provides security services to regional institutions, such as the municipality of De Fryske Marren in Friesland, the municipality of Alphen aan den Rijn in South Holland and the province of Drenthe.
G4S employees analyze video footage at the request of the police and monitor police stations in The Hague, Zoetermeer and Leidschendam. The company also has vacancies for the fire brigade in Limburg, Rotterdam and Zeeland. G4S also guards embassies , consulates and even the Peace Palace in the Hague.
G4S also works for semi-private institutions. Employees check passengers’ luggage at the airport Schiphol and provide security at Eindhoven Airport. G4S is also active in public transport: it has a contract for security services with ProRail, which manages the national railway network. The company posts vacancies to work for the National Railways (NS). G4S employees also monitor public transport in The Hague and Leiden. At Maastricht University, the TU Delft and the HZ School of Applied Sciences supplies G4S security guards for the university buildings.
In addition, G4S monitors many industrial areas in the Netherlands, including the port of Rotterdam, Shell’s infrastructure and locations managed by container company Maersk. In retail, G4S works for companies including Ikea and Nike.
Pension funds are divesting
The G4S website has an extensive policy document on human rights, based on the 2011 United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. According to that document, G4S expects its employees to respect human rights, just like customers, suppliers and partner companies.
The document lists countries at high risk for human rights abuses, with Kenya at number 13. It also states that shareholders can expect to invest in a company that has a “good understanding of business ethics and human rights.”
Apparently, not all shareholders are convinced. In 2019, the Ethics Advisory Board of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global – the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund – recommended divesting from G4S due to “systematic human rights violations” against workers in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The Advisory Board found that migrants working for G4S were severely restricted in their freedom, had to pay exorbitant amounts to get a job, and there were systemic lies about their contracts and salaries. Shortly thereafter, the Norwegian fund divested from G4S.
Six Dutch pension funds still invest in parts of Allied Universal, the parent company of G4S [see box]. Until recently, this also applied to the Rabobank Pension Fund. But in the third quarter of 2024, that fund put G4S on the exclusion list due to ‘norm violations’.
Dutch pension funds
On April 5, 2021, Allied Universal, an American security company, acquired G4S. As a result, G4S disappeared from the London stock exchange. According to the latest data, six Dutch pension funds invest in parts of Allied Universal, which has a very complex corporate structure. In total, this involves 61.9 million euros in bonds.
Pension fund Zorg en Welzijn holds bonds worth 21.9 million euros in Allied Universal Security Services LLC. According to Bloomberg, this subsidiary was directly responsible for the 2021 acquisition of the G4S group of companies.
Five other Dutch pension funds – the Metal & Technology Pension Fund (PMT), the Metal & Electrical Industry Pension Fund (PME ), the Retail Pension Fund, the Healthcare & Welfare Pension Fund (PFZW) and the Transport Pension Fund – hold a total of EUR 22 million in bonds in Allied Universal Holdco and Allied Universal Finance Corporation.
Holdco is the owner of Allied Universal Finance Corporation. Both companies operate as a ‘special purpose vehicle’. This means that they have a specific task, in this case: the issuing of bonds to finance the businesses of the entire group, including G4S.
The owner of Holdco is Allied Universal Topco. That company sits at the top of all the companies and is responsible for the management and ownership of interests in other companies within the group of companies. Two Dutch pension funds, ABP and BPFBOUW, hold bonds worth a total of 18 million euros in Topco.
Government must set a good example
‘It’s nice that G4S says it’s committed to the international guidelines for business and human rights, but when I look at the examples mentioned in this article, something seems to be going wrong in practice,’ concludes Tara Scally, an independent expert in business and human rights. She points out that when a company says it adheres to these guidelines, it has a duty to assess the potential human rights violations it may be involved in. ‘If violations are found, such a company must prevent and stop them where possible.’
Scally argues that Dutch government agencies that do business with G4S do not formally contribute to human rights violations that the company causes elsewhere, ‘but they can certainly play an important role in their position as contracting authority’.
According to her, government agencies can ask G4S how it has designed its due diligence process. ‘Governments could also conduct their own research. They would quickly come across the examples mentioned in this article, and it makes sense to ask G4S how they fit in with their ambition to comply with international guidelines and how the company will prevent future violations.’
Such conversations do not happen a lot, Sally knows from experience. Critics often say that a tender should be limited to the content of the assignment. ‘But what kind of signal do you send if you tolerate human rights violations or leave them undiscussed? The government must set a good example.’
RESPONSE FROM G4S/ALLIED UNIVERSAL
A spokesperson for G4S Kenya responded:
“Our guards working at Bamburi Cement are highly trained, including in the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. We have one security dog on site, which is only used at night by a trained dog handler and is kept on a double leash.”
“We believe that the allegations you have made against G4S are unsubstantiated.”
G4S claims it is unaware that six people have reported abuse, including dog bites, by G4S guards. “Serious incidents such as a dog bite would also be reported to Ngombeni police station.”
FTM and Spit have police statements of 6 people, from the Ngombeni police station.
Nightmare on Bamburi farm
An investigation by CCIJ member Ruth Hopkins in collaboration with Investigative Collective Spit, Follow the Money, ZAM Magazine, the Africa Report and Swiss magazine WOZ, reveals serious abuses in Southern Kenya. All partners published the articles simultaneously on November 14, 2024.