Sikh Security Company to Provide Security at Army

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N.M. company to provide security at N.C. Army base, others

The Associated Press

ESPANOLA, N.M. --

A New Mexico company has been awarded three U.S. Army contracts worth millions of dollars to provide security at Army bases in eight states, including North Carolina.

Akal Security is to provide more than 1,500 armed security guards for Army bases in Washington, Kansas, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama under the contracts, the Espanola company announced Monday.

The first 12 months of the contracts are estimated to be worth about $70 million.

Akal was contracted under a program to hire outside guards in order to reduce the burden on military personnel. Congress approved the program in the 2003 Defense Authorization Act.

The company, founded in 1980 by members of the Sikh community in Espanola, now has more than 8,000 employees in the United States and abroad.

"Unfortunately, with the existing security situation in this country and worldwide, we have to secure many facilities at a higher level than was previously thought necessary," said Daya Khalsa, one of the founders of the company.

It holds a five-year contract with the U.S. Marshals Service to provide security to courthouses in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi as well as federal contracts in many other states reaching from Florida to Hawaii.

U.S. General Services Administration figures from a year ago showed Akal to be one of New Mexico's largest federal contractors.

Khalsa said Akal's new security contracts won't provide jobs in New Mexico, but that profits would return to the state and create at least 10 jobs

at the company's headquarters. Akal's annual revenues are around $500 million, Khalsa said.

Sikhs, who wear turbans as part of their faith, belong to a monotheistic Indian religion that originated in the Punjab region of northwest India. The Sikh community near Espanola grew from a community founded in 1971 by about two dozen Sikhs.