“These 5 million euros will allow you to get your salaries in three days; this will allow all of us to get our salaries,” the President of the Management Board of the national media outlet Radio-Television Slovenia (RTVS), Zvezdan Martič, said on Planet TV in a recent statement. The 5-million-euro contract recently signed by RTV Slovenia’s President of the Management Board, Zvezdan Martič, and the Acting Director of the Government Office for Minorities, Janez Doltar, has come under the scrutiny of the Court of Audit of the Republic of Slovenia, which has raised a number of accusations about the questionable nature of the financially hefty contract.
Just one day after the allegedly controversial signing of the contract by the duo and allegations that Janez Doltar had made inappropriate comments about and even touched employees, Doltar announced that he would only be working until the New Year.
A contract for services that had already been provided
“Practically everything is controversial,” the aforementioned television channel reported on the signing of the contract. According to them, the contract was signed for services that had already been provided. The Court of Audit of the Republic of Slovenia explained that public finance rules do not provide for the conclusion of contracts for activities or services that have already been carried out. However, the Public Finance Act states very precisely that “contracts must be concluded before the start of the provision of the service or the purchase of the goods.”
Money earmarked for salaries!?
“Since the minority programmes at RTVS cost less than 1 million euros a month, it is clear that they will not be able to spend as much as 5 million euros in 14 days for their services,” they state, adding that what is even more controversial is that it appears that “the contract was knowingly signed under false pretences.” “The President of the Management Board of RTVS, Zvezdan Martič, and probably also the Acting Head of the Government Office for Minorities, Janez Doltar, knew very well that the money would not be used for the programme of the Italian and Hungarian national communities, but to cover the entire loss of the institution, which was incurred under the new RTVS management”, they stress, adding that this was proven by the statement of the President of the Management Board, Martič, at the meeting of the Workers’ Council.
Martič’s statement was also broadcast in the article. The latter began by saying that before he came to the Workers’ Council, he had signed a contract with the Acting Director of the Government Office for Minorities, Janez Doltar, for 5 million euros for co-funding of RTV and their programmes for national minorities. “For those of you who watched the news programmes yesterday, or listened to them or read them, one of the top news stories was that an emergency centre has finally been opened in Ptuj. The whole region was without an emergency centre. I do not know if anyone remembers what an investment that was. It was their project of a lifetime – worth 6 million euros. Today, we have signed a contract with which we will get 5 million euros. So that we have a little idea of what we are talking about. These 5 million euros will allow you to get your salaries in three days; this will allow all of us to get our salaries.”
The Court of Audit will treat the disclosure as an audit initiative
Martič’s statement can be described as quite shocking because, as it can be seen, the current President of the Management Board of RTVS first said that the signing of the 5-million-euro contract was for the purpose of financing the programmes of national minorities, and then admitted that the money would be used for the purpose of paying the employees’ salaries, which otherwise would not have been paid. “In this case, the Court of Audit makes it clear that the regulations do not foresee the use of budget funds outside the contract,” they stress, adding that the Court of Audit of the Republic of Slovenia has informed them that the statement will be treated as an initiative for an audit. In light of all of this, we have contacted RTVS with a press question, as we are interested to know how they comment on the coverage of the signing of the contract and what is their opinion on the position of the Court of Audit. We also contacted the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (KPK) with a request for a comment on the case and asked them if they intend to take any action. We will publish the replies at a later date, once we have received them.
The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption’s respone:
As you have already noted, the Court of Audit of the Republic of Slovenia is responsible for overseeing the use of public funds. The Commission’s powers are defined by the Integrity and Prevention of Corruption Act (ZIntPK). We are not currently dealing with the case you refer to, but if in the future we become aware of suspected breaches of powers from our own research, or if the Court of Audit, with which we regularly cooperate, refers such suspected breaches to us, we will deal with the case as we do with all cases, in accordance with our powers under the aforementioned law.
S. K.
