
Hiding places only hide trash and neglect, one cannot take refuge in them.
These facilities, which are located in the capital's municipalities of Centar, Karposh, Aerodrom and Gazi Baba, have been under the jurisdiction of the Directorate for Protection and Rescue for 20 years, which is supposed to take care of their maintenance and restoration, but judging by the condition they are in, it is obvious that the authorities have completely forgotten about them.
Almost all of the hiding places in Skopje are unusable, some of them are inaccessible, some have been turned into illegal dumps, and the few that do have any equipment do not have electricity, water, or functional toilets. In fact, none of them can, in case of need, be used for the purpose for which they were built.
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The shelters, which in the capital are located in the municipalities of Centar, Karpoš, Aerodrom and Gazi Baba, have been under the jurisdiction of the Directorate for Protection and Rescue for 20 years, which is responsible for their maintenance and restoration, as well as for informing citizens. Then, in 2005, by a Government Decision, 100 shelters across the country, along with the entire infrastructure and project technical documentation, which until then were used by the Ministry of Defense, passed under the jurisdiction of the Directorate.
Few of the capital's residents know where there are shelters in Skopje and whether they can count on them at all. But those who passed by the shelters under Kale had the opportunity to see for themselves that it is simply impossible to enter or take shelter in them. Their condition is terrible.

For about ten days now, the Directorate for Protection and Rescue has not responded to "Sloboden Pechat's" questions about how many shelters there are in the city and where they are located, what condition they are in, and whether the Directorate plans to invest in them, reconstruct them, equip them, and make them functional. Two years ago, they boasted that five of the shelters in Skopje were equipped, but now they are not giving any explanation.
However, what the Directorate is not answering, the auditors stated in their audit report, where in relation to the hiding places it was determined that the State Social Security Office does not perform current and investment maintenance of the shelters. The auditors were unable to conduct a physical inspection of most of them because the employees in the regional departments of the State Social Security Office were unable to open them.
A large part of the shelters are blocked or closed by obstacles made of wood and bulky waste, some of them are open and resemble landfills, and some are warehouses for old equipment. Some shelters are not in operation due to faulty ventilation systems and lack of electricity and water. At the same time, one shelter is used by a private legal entity, for which we were not provided with lease documentation, nor have we determined adequate income on this basis. Some of the SSO equipment located in the warehouses is non-functional, unusable and technologically outdated, incompatible, untested, unserviced for a long period, with its expiration date passed. Some of the equipment that was allocated by the Ministry of Defense according to a divisional balance sheet back in 2005 is older than 40 years - the auditors determined.

The report states that the failure to maintain the constructed shelters is not in accordance with Article 8 of the Law on the Use and Disposal of State-Owned and Municipally-Owned Property, which stipulates that state bodies and legal entities established by the state use real estate in accordance with their purpose and the works and tasks they perform, and affects their functionality and the ability to be used for the purpose for which they were built, the protection of the population, material goods and the cultural heritage of the Republic, in the event of natural disasters and other accidents.
The responsible person in the State Security Service should take measures and activities to improve the situation with the shelters, fully operationalize them, as well as ongoing maintenance and care for them - the auditors recommend in the report.

The audit found that the SSO faces serious challenges in its functioning, due to the lack of a National Strategy for Protection and Rescue, a lack of qualified staff, and inadequate management of assets and equipment. This creates significant risks to the security of the country, especially in conditions of natural disasters and other emergencies, where a rapid and effective response is crucial.
In fact, not only in terms of shelters, but it seems that the entire protection and rescue system is not functioning, at least from the perspective of citizens. No one in the state cares to inform them how to act, how to react, where to move and take shelter, or how to provide assistance to others in conditions of natural or other threats to security.
Several decades ago, in the former state that included Macedonia, an exercise called SVOZ (All in Defense and Protection) was regularly organized every year for citizens and even school students, through which the population was trained on how to act in crisis situations.