Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) has requested that a joint urgent meeting of the Committee on Foreign Policy and the Commission for Public Finance Control be convened to discuss suspicions of controversial money transfers from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs to the Centre for International Cooperation and Development (CSMR), which is state-owned.
“As of the 1st of June 2023, the Director of the Centre for International Cooperation and Development is Dejan Prešiček, a prominent member of the Social Democrats party (Socialni demokrati – SD). During his leadership, the financial resources of the Centre received from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs have increased enormously. During this time, the Ministry has transferred more than 2,000,000 euros to the Centre’s account, in most cases with the purpose of the transfer being stated as ‘payment in advance/prepayment’, which was something that did not happen before the arrival of Dejan Prešiček as Director of the Centre, as the transfers were extremely small and not even monthly,” the SDS party wrote.
They further explained that since Prešiček became the Director of the Centre for International Cooperation and Development, it has received just over 597 thousand euros from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs in October 2023, 449 thousand euros in December 2023, and just under 969 thousand euros in March 2024 as advance payments.
“It is also interesting that on the 20th of March 2024, Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon and her Ministry diverted a further 863,993 euros and 104,673 euros, respectively, to the Centre, with the purpose of the payment in both cases being stated as ‘payment in advance/prepayment’. Thus, we can see that the Centre has received more than two million euros in less than one year, while in the last nine years, or before the arrival of Dejan Prešiček, it has received less than 300,000 euros from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs,” the SDS party parliamentary group wrote.
They proposed the following conclusions
We propose that the Committee on Foreign Policy and the Commission for Public Finance Control adopt the following conclusions after the discussion on the matter in question:
– The Committee on Foreign Policy and the Commission for Public Finance Control call on the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs to prepare a report on the adequacy and transparency of the transfers to the Centre for International Cooperation and Development for the period May 2020-May 2024 and to send it to the Committee and the Commission within one month.
– The Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Commission for Public Finance Control call on the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (KPK) to examine the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs’ dealings with the Centre for International Cooperation and Development during the term of the current government.
Ž. K.
