SLASSPA AGM elects Major Tissa Aluwihare as President

Wednesday, 4 December 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

First ever security exhibition to be held next year

Bren and Securitas Sri Lanka Country President Major Tissa Aluwihare was unanimously elected as President of the Sri Lanka Security Service Providers Association (SLASSPA) at their 9th Annual General Meeting, which was held at Taj Samudra on Friday evening. Major Aluwihare, who looks back on 23 years in the security industry, has led his company, Bren Security, with outstanding success, culminating in its merger with Securitas AB of Sweden in 2010.

Securitas AB is the world’s knowledge leader in security with a presence in 53 countries around the globe. In his inaugural address to the SLASSPA members, Major Aluwihare pledged to spearhead a strong image-building drive for the Industry, in line with its newly defined vision of ensuring ethical practices within the trade, winning hearts and minds of its stakeholders, including the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Labour, all security companies and other security services organisations, all clients, and most importantly the guards, the men on the ground. Unveiling his road map for the next two years, Major Aluwihare stressed that the strength of the industry lies in the hands of the stake holders. All parties must be convinced that SLASSPA represents and acts in their best interest. He said that SLASSPA must unite its stake holders and win their confidence in order to gain impetus to create the necessary synergy to drive the organisation closer to realising its vision. Major Aluwihare said that he will set up a system for regular representation of the stakeholders at SLASSPA council meetings, which would help bridge the present communication gap. This would give more active recognition and strength to SLASSPA in dealing with the real issues confronting the industry. He also emphasized that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) starts at home and that the organisation would first look inwards towards uplifting the status of the guards, who are the men on ground, facing a multitude of issues at work and at home. By raising the image and dignity of their profession and ensuring a fair, sustainable wage for them, their confidence and self-esteem would automatically increase. Major Aluwihare explained that his next step would be to raise funds through sponsorship to have a security exhibition at the BMICH, where members can exhibit their services and products. The whole exhibition would be under the patronage of SLASSPA, who would occupy a major information stall wherein it could propagate its vision to the public and the business community at large. This first ever professional image building exercise would demonstrate to the public, that the security industry in Si Lanka is a proactive one, conversant with the latest international security trends, and no longer a sleepy, first generation industry. Foreign companies, which deal in the latest security technology systems, would also be invited to participate, thus raising the benchmark of knowledge vis-a-vis the local trade. This fair would give SLASSPA, the member companies and the Industry the much needed exposure and help generate a sense of healthy competitiveness amongst members, thereby creating conditions for an accelerated progress of the Industry as a whole. Finally Major Aluwihare stated, that this event would give the security industry, the association and all stakeholders the required publicity as well as educate the public that the local private security sector is indeed a professional, recognised entity, with ethical standards and international product solutions, fit to protect and guard their families and properties.