The case of the Gen-I energy company financing likeable journalists at the expense of the state, which was revealed by the media outlet Požareport in March, has still not had an epilogue. After Golob’s company Gen-I refused to publicly reveal the contract it has with a company which was run by journalist Vesna Vuković from the Necenzurirano (Uncensored) web portal, which is run by the garbage and media tycoon Martin Odlazek, the Information Commissioner got involved in the case in question. She called on the company to disclose the required information and came to the conclusion that the public is not entitled to information on why Robert Golob paid Vuković’s company 103 thousand euros.
From the recent decision of the Information Commissioner, it is clear that Golob’s Gen-I energy company concluded the contract with the company SEE M. & C., which was founded and also managed for a long time by the Uncensored journalist Vesna Vuković, in 2019 already. And this year, according to the web application Erar, which provides information on the spending of public funds, 3,660 euros were wired from one company to the other again. However, since the state was not the majority owner of the Gen-I company at the time when the contract and annexes between the two companies in question were signed, according to the Information Commissioner, Gen-I is not obliged to disclose to the public the reason for wiring the money to the company of the Uncensored journalist.
Let us remind you of what happened. Vuković is the person who founded a private company in 2017 and then transferred it to another person in 2019, and the company was financed by none other than the Gen-I energy company under Golob’s leadership. Journalist Bojan Požar also revealed that in this case, the financing was not used for advertising or paying for content published on the portal for which Vuković writes but for transferring funds from one place to another through fictitious “consulting contracts” to the transaction account of a privately owned company. With all this, it should be emphasised that this company does not represent the owner of the portal. It should also be pointed out that the company in question is not a marketing agency, as one might expect. This is a company dedicated to business consulting. Neither Gen-I nor Vuković wanted to disclose which services were paid for by the money transfers in question. Meanwhile, the Gorenje company had no problems disclosing information about the financing of the SEE M. & C. d.o.o. company. It wired some money to the company at the time when it was still run by Vuković, and the representatives of the company were able to provide an explanation on why they paid the company some money in one day.
According to the Siol web portal, the company of the future Minister of Finance, Klemen Boštjančič, is also among the companies that financed Vuković’s company.
Information Commissioner: This is not public information
At the end of the appeal procedure that the Information Commissioner conducted at the request of TSmedia company, the Information Commissioner explained that “since the contract with SEE M. & C. was not concluded at a time when Gen-I was already obliged to provide information of public nature, this cannot be considered public information.” They also revealed that the contract was concluded on the 22nd of July 2019, and the annexes were added on the 8th of April 2020, the 29th of July 2020, and the 30th of March 2021. In light of this, the Information Commissioner’s office assessed whether the company Gen-I was already liable for the provision of information of public nature at the time, meaning, whether it was the state who had the majority share of subscribed capital and the right to control the majority and appoint more than half of the members of the board.
According to Article 4.a of the Public Information Access Act, the business entities that are under the dominant influence of public law entities, are obliged to provide only those information from legal transactions that arose during the time when they were under the dominant influence of the state, the Information Commissioner’s office explained, adding: “Who are the people liable for the provision of information of a public nature derives from the Register of Entities Subject to Sharing Information of Public Nature, which is, according to Article 3.b of the Public Information Access Act, of an informative nature only. If a legal entity is entered into the register, it is presumed to be liable, but the legal entity may refuse access to the information if it proves that it does not meet the conditions for being liable or that the information was created at a time when it was not liable yet.”
The Information Commissioner had to determine whether Gen-I was liable for the provision of public information under the Public Information Access Act at the time. Regarding the appeal procedure, the Information Commissioner’s office explained that, at the request of the Gen-I company, they extended the deadline for submitting the required documentation but that the decision was still made within the legal deadline. The appeal was received on the 13th of April 2022, and the decision was issued within two months.
“Based on the documentation and the presented facts, the Information Commissioner has concluded that Gen-I was not a business entity under the predominant influence of public law entities during this period, and regarding the manner of determining the predominant influence, this was based on the judgment of the Administrative Court of the Republic of Slovenia no. IU 350/2017-21 of the 22nd of August 2018. It follows from the judgment that the ownership shares of the state in the company cannot be easily added together to meet the condition of dominant influence from Article 1.a of the Public Information Access Act, but only the shares of those companies that are also themselves majority-owned by public law entities can be taken into account. As the concept of two equal partners in Gen-I does not deviate significantly from the established factual situation from the judgment even on the relevant dates, the conditions from the second paragraph of Article 1.a of the Public Information Access Act regarding the dominant influence are not met, which means that the Gen-I company was not under the dominant influence of public law entities at the time in question. Therefore, since Gen-I was not bound by the provisions of the Public Information Access Act or the Media Act at the time, the Information Commissioner did not have a legal basis for further assessment of the required information, which represents information of a public nature under Article 4.a of the Public Information Access Act. Therefore, the Information Commissioner also did not come to a decision on the possible existence of public interest – even if the information is otherwise of interest to the public, it is not freely available if the company at the time of the information being created was not obliged to share public information,” said the Information Commissioner, according to the Siol web portal.
Money was wired to the See M. & C.’s account
As we have previously reported, the fact is that money was transferred from the Gen-I accounts to the account of the See M. & C. company. This is proven by the graph from the Erar web application, which reveals a January transfer in the amount of 3.660 euros. So, at least that much has been wired.
The See M. & C. company was founded by Vuković, who was also its director for a while. She transferred the ownership of the company to Mitja Zorko on the 18th of March 2019 to Mitja Zorko, who is unknown to the general public. However, as we have previously reported, it is known that he lives in Celje, in the same neighbourhood as Primož Cirman, the editor and another journalist of the Uncensored web portal. With this, Požar wondered whether the whole thing was really just a coincidence or was there something else behind all of this. It is also interesting to note that the change in ownership happened after the affair was made public.
The web portal E-bonitete reveals that on the 15th of March this year, the company SEE M. & C., Business Consulting, renamed into KCA, Business Consulting and Measurements, and on the 13th of April, Zorko resigned from his position. Cirman, Vuković’s coworker, became the new director, and the company MEDIA PARTNER AGENCIJA d.o.o., which is 100% owned by Svet24 d.o.o., became the 100% owner of the aforementioned company. As is known, the company Svet24 d.o.o. is owned by Martin Odlazek’s ex-wife, Alena Nardini (formerly Alena Odlazek).
In addition to Golob, Vuković’s company was allegedly also being financed by the future Minister of Finance, Klemen Boštjančič, who supposedly transferred 34 thousand euros to the company through his advisory centre Brio. As already mentioned, the Gorenje company, which has been owned by the Chinese company Hisense since 2018, had contracts with Vuković’s company as well, in various time periods between 2017 and 2019, more specifically, during the search for a strategic partner and immediately after the takeover procedure. However, they did not explain why they paid the company that amount of money.
Sara Kovač
