At a recent general meeting of the Slovenian Association of Judges (Slovensko sodniško društvo), Prime Minister Robert Golob announced a reform of the pay system, with a special salary pillar for the judiciary. He promised an additional 600 euros to all judicial officials, which will certainly increase the appetites of other groups in the public sector for similar or even higher demands. What is even more striking is that Golob has promised raises to prosecutors at the very time when they are investigating him on the suspicion of committing a crime.
“To show that we are being serious, we have decided to introduce a supplement to your salaries that you will be receiving from the 1st of January onwards. This is to show that we are not just making promises but fulfilling them, too,” Prime Minister Robert Golob told the judges. The 600-euro-gross salary supplement will also be given to prosecutors who are directing the pre-trial proceedings against Golob – the former President of the Management Board of the Gen-I energy company. This raises a legitimate question as to whether this promise is not just a form of bribery for the judicial system. Golob’s announcement was met with great applause and approval by the judges present at the general meeting of the Association of Judges. The prosecutors will undoubtedly also be satisfied with this supplement.
It should be pointed out that the National Bureau of Investigation is currently conducting pre-trial proceedings directed by the Specialised Public Prosecutor’s Office in the case against the Gen-I energy company, on the suspicion of committing a criminal offence of abuse of position or trust in an economic activity. The case concerns the allegedly controversial operations of Gen-I’s Belgrade-based subsidiary, which we have already written about on several occasions on Nova24TV. The Belgrade company is alleged to have transferred money to a company in Montenegro on the basis of consultancy contracts, and plans for the partial privatisation of Gen-I are also under scrutiny.
Interestingly, almost no media outlets have so far reported on this publicly disclosed story, even though it was already in the public domain before the elections to the National Assembly.
Andrej Žitnik
