WHAT IF I TOLD YOU THERE EXISTS A MULTINATIONAL CORPORATION WITH 40+ SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES ACROSS THE GLOBE which services a vast array of governmental agencies? And what if I told you this very same corporation has been involved in scandal after scandal, ranging from overcharging governments for electronically tagged inmates, to falsifying billing documents, to mismanaging vital patient information, to drug smuggling enterprises found within their facilities, and finally sexual abuse and terrible living conditions in their immigration/refugee centres? What if I also told you that this same company is protected under “commercial confidentiality” and the details of its inner workings are not open to Freedom of Information requests?
You’d probably ask me, “What is this corporation you speak of?”
Well, this corporation’s name is Serco, and it’s the biggest company you’ve never heard of. And that’s no accident. Since 1987, Serco has quietly and clandestinely taken over many of the world’s public services, and has cleverly avoided too much media attention. That is until in 2013, a taxpayer scandal broke and collapsed its share price. Since then, Serco has been fighting a steady battle in the UK media, with little attention to it in other areas of the world.