Examination of the factors affecting the effectiveness of arms control at Armscor and its contractors

Abstract

Responsible arms control is an effective tool in international efforts to make sure that arms do not reach pariah states and terrorist groups. It must be balanced against the need to have a conducive environment for the defence industry to flourish. Unfortunately arms control has been suggested to be limiting the flow of business in the defence industry by delaying the acquisition of defence matériel due to the processes of acquiring permits, reduced revenues as more resource allocation for the arms control role and loss of business due to the limited pool of customers arising from embargoes. It was therefore the aim of this study to investigate the factors that are considered to affect the effectiveness of arms control at Armscor and its contractors with a view to identifying gaps and come up with ways to address those gaps. This it is hoped will help Armscor to improve its arms control system and thus strengthen its position as the acquisition arm of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). The objectives of the study were to: • review the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) policies and regulations with a view to identifying problematic areas and ways to address them. • determine the values of the defence matériel acquired for the SANDF through Armscor in the last three years to establish the potential loss of business if Armscor could be blacklisted due to violation of arms control regulations of supplier countries. • determine the effectiveness of the leadership of Armscor Project managers and the arms control awareness programmes. • establish the strengths and weaknesses of the role players in the South African arms control environment The NCACC policies and regulation were reviewed by establishing from literature the common violations and investigate how these are addressed in the regulations. The potential loss of business at Armscor was established by obtaining data from the Directorate Conventional Arms Control (DCAC) on import permits issued to Armscor from 2007 to 2009 and their monetary value was determined and this was taken as the potential loss of business. The effectiveness of the leadership of the Armscor Program managers v and the awareness programs were determined through questionnaires and analysis of audit reports respectively. The strengths and weaknesses of the role players in arms control were determined by interviewing the senior people in the Armscor Arms Control Division (ACD), DCAC, SANDF, Armscor Business Logistics (Armscor shipping agent) and customs. It was found from literature that the common violations are related to the procurement of non-substantial military items and Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW). Interviews with some of the role-players revealed that industry is concerned about delays in procurement due to longer turnaround times in applications and issuing of EUC and permits. The procurement of arms is adequately addressed in the regulations under munitions list but there is a problem with classification of dual-use items. There is also lack of appropriate control of arms brokers and even though the NCACC regulations provide for the issuing of open permits which could be used to avoid delays in permit application for very urgent cases, the DCAC is reluctant to apply this clause. The total value of import permits that were issued to Armscor from 2007 to 2009 is R3.778 billion, R4.889 billion, R4.505 billion respectively and these were taken as potential loss of business to Armscor should it be blacklisted. The responses from the questionnaire indicated that Armscor Project Managers use a leadership style that is conducive to arms control implementation as they act as liaison with the external constituencies, trouble-shooters, coaches and conflict managers. Although no findings were reported from audits, there were gaps that were identified which imply that the awareness is not at the optimum level. The interviews revealed that some of the role-players do not have appropriate resources (human, funds, IT systems) and as such would adversely affect the work of other role players in the procurement chain. It is believed that a good arms control framework must start at a higher level with effective functioning of the controlling body, DCAC, and it cascades down to industry which includes Armscor. Thus it is believed that DCAC could function better if it becomes a separate entity that has its own budget and therefore can be able to address its human resource and other problems. The role-players must work closely together and forums be initiated where there will be regular engagement on identified problems. Armscor positions itself to play a role as a knowledge base of the arms control industry as it is the only company in industry that has a well developed arms control system and has vast experience in the field.