«There will be no KINA»?
«There will be no KINA»? From a consolidating idea to an ordinary business task
«Kina», in the sense of — a sequel to the film, most likely will not happen. And not because the processes of preparation for the championship «went into the shadows» — the very idea of Euro-2012 as a chance for Ukraine to organize its life in the European style was simply leveled out.
Earlier, when the Coordination Bureau headed by I. Shevlyak functioned in the structure of the Cabinet Secretariat, at least some attempts at systemic transformations were observed in the security sphere. That is, the high-quality holding of the 2012 championship was considered not only as a TASK, but also as a PROCESS of forming a European security market and creating partnership instruments between state and non-state security entities.
For example, in order to increase the efficiency of cooperation between business and government bodies, it was planned to create a so-called «Council of Public Experts» at the National Coordination Center for Euro 2012 Security. The Council was to include authoritative specialists from systemically important enterprises, representatives of leading professional public associations and specialized media in the security industry.
In order to ensure the necessary level of security for tourists outside the official Euro 2012 venues, it was planned that the Department of Public Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and the Department of State Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, in cooperation with the above-mentioned Council, within the framework of extra-budgetary financing, will begin to develop and implement the “Concept for Ensuring the Security of Foreign Tourists”.
It was also planned to create an official «Proposal Database» on the Internet as a kind of pre-tender platform, which would contain systematized information about the competencies of Ukrainian and global companies willing to participate in ensuring the security of the championship.
Of course, one cannot idealize the work of the Coordination Bureau of I. Shevlyak — otherwise the Security Concept, previously approved by the Cabinet of Ministers and criticized by UEFA, would not be being revised now, and facts about the theft of budget funds at Euro facilities would not have surfaced. However, it is doubtful that the old team would have abolished the competitive system for selecting contractors — most likely, the tender procedure would have undergone cosmetic changes, however, remaining public.
Now, however, citing a “threat to the country’s reputation” and the fact that “99% of Ukrainian tenders are won by crooks,” the authorities have cancelled tenders for Euro 2012 facilities altogether. At the same time, it was announced to the entire country that decisions on the use of tens of billions of people’s hryvnias would be made by an ephemeral “professional council.”
The anti-European integration activities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs deserve special attention. On March 5 this year, draft law No. 4824 «On security activities» was adopted in the first reading, designed to finally legalize and — moreover — expand the scope of entrepreneurial activity of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in terms of technical security equipment. A little later, the Organized Crime Control Department throughout Ukraine suddenly began to inquire about the list of facilities that prefer to pay money for security not to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but to non-governmental security companies (a copy of one such request has already «leaked» onto the Internet). Now the Minister of Internal Affairs publicly discredits the institution of public formations for the protection of public order, which is still a «trump card» for private security firms, since the Law «On the Participation of Citizens in the Protection of Public Order and the State Border» gives them real, not buffoonish tools for the prevention and suppression of administrative offenses and crimes.
In essence, these actions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are not aimed at creating a European SYSTEM for protecting the life and health of citizens, the interests of society and the state from illegal encroachments (as is written in many regulatory documents), but at strengthening its dominance in the security services market. And only a handful of romantics occupying non-general positions in the Department of Public Security care about the security of Euro 2012.
The above convinces us that preparations for Euro 2012 in Ukraine have ceased to be a creative factor, but have turned into a solution to a complex, but ordinary management business TASK, which has a given time frame.
Emergency work and lack of control
According to one of the heads of the National Agency for Preparation for Euro 2012, the issues of championship security are being resolved in our country “in an emergency manner.” To understand what the Ukrainian emergency, multiplied by the lack of control of the state machine, leads to, it is enough to familiarize yourself with some documents concerning the fire safety of one iconic sports facility built in the east of Ukraine.
If we are to believe letter No. 0910/02 from 14.10.2009, signed by two directors of the facility — the general and technical directors, then several months after the delivery of the facility, the following shortcomings and unfinished work were present (letter on three pages, quoted selectively. — Ed.):
«Thermal fire alarms in the diesel generator rooms are not properly selected — sensors are installed that operate at a temperature of 70 °C, while the normal operating temperature of the engines is 80-90 °C. When the generators are running, the automatic powder fire extinguishing system is triggered for 5 minutes.»
«There are difficulties with the evacuation of people in the event of a fire or other emergency:
— evacuation from the parking lot is carried out through doors with locks that do not have an anti-panic handle;
— the system for unlocking the magnetic locks on the gates is not linked to the automatic fire alarm system, and is not currently functioning.»
«On all control panels of the automatic fire alarm system, previously recorded signatures of rooms and smoke exhaust zones disappear, i.e., when any sensor is triggered, the system should show its address, and the panel displays an empty line.»
«According to the project, pumps with a capacity of 22 kW with the corresponding starting equipment were to be installed on the fire pipeline system. The pumps were installed with a capacity of 30 kW, and the starting equipment remained the same, i.e. the pump starting equipment does not correspond to the power of the engines being started.»
False activations of local fire extinguishing systems, as in the case of diesel generators, have not ceased at this facility to this day. Thus, on 19.05.2010, the facility's engineering and technical personnel drew up an Act on the activation of the aerosol fire extinguishing system. 
As it turned out, resistors, a capacitor and a wire jumper were soldered onto the system board of the control panel (see fig.). Miracles do not happen — either the device was delivered in this form from Europe, or it was repaired during the installation or commissioning of the system. To prevent such cases in the future, the supplier company recommended that the general contractor develop measures to prevent unauthorized access to the fire extinguishing system control cabinets, installing, at a minimum, cabinet opening sensors with the issuance and logging of information signals to the fire station.
«Security UA» does not need to be explained that at such facilities, where about 8 thousand fire alarms, 7.5 thousand sprinklers, 16 control units and 50 kilometers of fire water supply are installed, there can always be technical «nuances». Sometimes even — not through the fault of the enterprises involved in the design, installation and maintenance processes, but of the energy supply companies. Unfortunately, European electronics are often designed for «greenhouse» conditions; unable to withstand short-term voltage surges of 380 V (which is an everyday thing for us), it begins to rebel and give false signals.
But this article does not aim to understand the true reasons for the technical imperfection of the structure. We are talking about a potential threat to the lives of tens of thousands of people! The fact is that information received from various sources may indicate that at this facility with a large number of people, the installation and programming of fire alarm and automatic fire extinguishing systems were carried out with significant deviations from the original design solutions. The situation at the facility is so critical that, according to unverified data, due to numerous false alarms and a number of other factors during mass events at the facility, the automation is deliberately turned off.
The criticality of the situation was indirectly confirmed by the technical director of the facility, when, in response to a question from Security UA about false alarms, he very emotionally stated an “information leak” and even took some measures to ensure that this information did not go beyond the editorial office.
To assess the information received, Security UA contacted the Ukrainian Union of Fire and Technological Safety (USPTB). This organization, which has already become a productive «communication gateway» with the Ministry of Emergency Situations, recently created an independent public expert body. Upon special request, USPTB experts, like good Samaritans, can go to any facility and assess the situation on the spot. This is theoretical. In practice, such Samaritans are not very eager to be invited as guests. But since fire prevention work at this facility was carried out, among other things, by enterprises-members of the USPTB, there is hope that in this case the free services of independent experts will be used.
Draft Order
The economic benefit for Ukraine from hosting the final part of the European Football Championship 2012 is highly questionable. And how much can you earn on SOMEONE ELSE'S business project? Those who declare this out loud are accused of sabotaging almost everything that exists — they say, the country's prestige, its reputation, future investments are at stake!.. But even if we consider the championship as a PR campaign for Ukraine, its narrow football focus conceals a gigantic risk of missing a blow to the country's image from any other direction, thereby revealing the complete absurdity of the multi-billion dollar costs of preparing this campaign.
However, Security UA is interested in more mundane risks that fans and tourists may face — this is the risk of being burned, suffocated in smoke, crushed in a crowd, killed, beaten, robbed, poisoned, cheated, raped, maimed… After all, God forbid, let Europe and the whole world doubt Ukraine's ability to provide security to its guests! Then there will be neither reputation nor investments….
And the facts highlighted in this article just show that they either don't know how or don't want to fight such mundane risks in Ukraine properly. If the article is shown to any of the government's top managers, it is possible that the following resolution will appear on it:
«Check possible facts of abuse by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of its dominant position in the security services market; create a commission to check the fire safety status of all Euro 2012 facilities.»
Such a resolution, even if it is zealously implemented, will not make Ukraine safer. What should happen for a top manager to issue, for example, such an Order (?):
«1. Revise draft law No. 4824 «On security activities» as not meeting the interests of the state and society.
2. Liquidate the State Security Service under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. On the basis of the State Security Service, create a police security unit that will perform security functions at especially dangerous and strategically important state facilities, and a state security company that will provide paid services to the population.
3. Develop uniform rules for conducting security business for state and private security companies; transfer the functions of licensing security activities to the Ministry of Justice.
4. Provide in the country's budget for 2011 and 2012 the funds necessary for the State Standards Committee of Ukraine to develop Ukrainian regulatory documents in the field of technical regulation of fire, man-made and security safety harmonized with European ones.
5. Accelerate the adoption of the State Targeted Social Program for Ensuring Fire Safety for 2011-2015; in cooperation with the professional community, develop an action plan for the implementation of the system of economic management of security and the system of independent assessment of fire risks.»
6. Accelerate the development and adoption of the regulatory framework regarding self-regulatory organizations.
There will be such an Order — then the filming of the sequel to the film about the Ukrainian security industry will begin. In the meantime, sorry, there is nothing to film.