Thus Spake The Government


Minister of Internal Affairs Dragutin Mate

In light of the tragedy in front of Global Club in downtown Ljubljana which happened ten days ago, the government of Janez Janša took decisive and firm steps to enforce strict control over private security companies and prevent further loss of life. These steps include:

-bacground checks of security personel
-more specific conditions for revoking companies’ licenses
-more powers to inspectors who will now be able to temporarily shut down facilities without proper security
-legal rammifications for club owners (or owners of other facilites) without security or who hired a non-licensed security company
-enabling the Ministry of Internal Affairs to execute continuous control of security companies’ meeting the criteria of the law
-specifies conditions for revoking a security guard’s badge.


Thus spake the goverment…Now, ladies and getlemen… Let’s take a look at current provisions of the Law on private security companies. Specifically, Articles 19 and 20, which stipulate conditions that have to be met by a security company and a security guard respectively to get their license:

-passing an appropriate education programme
-has achieved “national vocational qualification” of a security manager
-a background check showed no reservations
-is a citizen of Republic of Slovenia

According to Article 33 of the same Law, a copmany which secures a public gathering must have at least thirty (30) licensed security guards which have passed an educational programme verified by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Furthermore, the law is quite specific on the conditions for temporary revocation of a company’s license, but rather vague on permanent revocation. Oddly enough, the new government measures are quite specific on temporary revocation of the said license, but say nothing of permanent revocation.


The inevitable conclusion is that the measures passed by the government bring nothing new, but are only an attempt at snowing the public. The law is there, it only needs to be executed properly. Case in point being this PR release by the Inspectorate of Internal Affairs (Slovene only) dated 26 January 2006 which says that VIP Varovane (the incriminated security company) had no security license whatsoever, let alone a specific license required to secure a public gathering. Truth be said, the same company did apparently get a license (at least according to this list), but the law could have been executed much earlier and lives could have been saved.


The government needn’t pass new legislation. it just needs to execute the existing one. But – in reality – what are the internal minister Dragutin Mate and his boss Janez Janša doing to protect citizens of this country? Nothing. Period.

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pengovsky

Agent provocateur and an occasional scribe.

4 thoughts on “Thus Spake The Government”

  1. Why do I have a strong feeling that these security companies are actually legalized mafia business. You have to pay gorilla guys so they are on your side rather than being on the other side.

  2. Well, that’s capitalism for you… Primary accumulation of weatlh is by definition legalized theft.

    So private security is by definition legalized extortion.

    But that’s not the issue. The problem is that these gorrilas are often on both sides of the law, depending on whether they’re on or off duty.

  3. It’s all about keeping up appearances, isn’t it. The crowd yelled for measures to be taken and they shall be appeased.

    What was it that Zoki said about the cars parked underneath the club that should’ve been handled a long time ago? Enforcement of existing measures was his line, right?

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