Record-high tender: who’s to protect Kazan railway stations from terrorists for 1,3bn?
Russian Railways invited a tender where bombs will be looked for and wrongdoers will be caught for five years in Kazan and Kazan-2 Railway Stations
Russian Railways is intending to spend 1,03 billion rubles to “provide sustained operation of Kazan station — to protect from wrongdoings threatening the activity of the transport complex and another 354 million on analogous services for Vosstaniye station (Kazan-2). It is noteworthy that earlier such contracts for the protection of railway hubs of the capital were almost six times cheaper than the indicated one. Realnoe Vremya found out why.
Twice more posts at central station
The tender drew the attention of Realnoe Vremya due to its astronomic sum, which is planned to be offered to potential contractors: almost 1,5 billion rubles for Kazan only. A year earlier, a more modest number was mentioned in the tender for the analogous services — 235 million rubles (136 million for Kazan and 99 for Vosstaniye).
However, after a detailed examination of the tender documentation, it turned out that such a significant difference envisages a five-year, not a year-long, contract, and an increased number of 24/7 examination posts. It is supposed to place 42 posts of this kind at the Kazan station (21 posts from January to March 2020, while this year there are 18 posts) and four rapid-response teams. According to the agreement, the payment is monthly, the project of the contracts includes possible indexation of the cost of services depending on the inflation rate.
Task is not to allow terrorist attacks
In accordance with terms of the tender, the future executor must “provide uninterrupted protection of transport infrastructure facilities and/or transport vehicles from illegal interference for the sustained and safe operation of the transport complex, interests of the individual and society”.
All workers of the contract must be certified and respectively equipped. Their duty includes examination of individuals entering the territory of railway stations and their luggage, prevention of violations of the permit regime, detection of potential wrongdoers and so on. Such units must be present at all big stations according to the federal law On Transport.
SSK CJSC provides the Kazan stations with these services now. It won the corresponding tender a year ago. According to the portal of government procurement, another potential contractor claimed victory in the competition (the name of the juridical person isn’t published), however, the initial price of the contract during the auction was lowered only insignificantly. Representative of the company Denis Brazhnikov explained to Realnoe Vremya that the main function of the contractor in this agreement is counter-terrorism.
“We are the metal detectors and those examine passengers. It is also we who react if unattended belongings are found. Our task includes everything when it comes to counter-terrorism,” Brazhnikov explained.
An announcement about the recruitment of certified staff has been published on the website of the company.
Railway contracts on the flow
In 2918, the revenue of SSK totalled 360 million rubles, profit was 34 million. Russian Railways and its subsidiaries are key clients of the company. SSK has been providing services to the railway stations since 2018: the company got the first tender to protect Vosstaniya from illegal interference at 3,8 million rubles as a result of tender of the only supplier in December 2017.
Interestingly, that some Umida Karimova and SMART juridical agency, which doesn’t operate, founded, in turn, by Nailya Kamalova are considered the founders of the CJSC. Moreover, Karimova and Kamalova are supposed founders or directors of several small Kazan companies at once that provide different services to Russian Railways and subsidiaries of the monopolist. SSK will probably be the favourite of the new 1,5-billion tender. However, by the publication, the company hadn’t confirmed this to Realnoe Vremya. The newspaper requested official comments on the tender at Russian Railways, the answer hasn’t been received yet.
The result of the tender published on 8 November will be known on 5 December. Applications from bidders are received until 25 November.
Security is separate issue
During a talk with Realnoe Vremya, a representative of SSK company emphasised that the firm didn’t deal with the protection of railway stations. Indeed, the tender for the protection of property at railway stations was published separately. Only one lot unites 25 stations of Gorky Railways, including two Kazan Railways. The initial (highest) price of the corresponding contract is 563 million rubles. The result of the tender will be known on 6 December.