The first reactions of the former Minister of Justice, Dominika Švarc Pipan, to the audit report on the purchase of the court building on Litijska Street in Ljubljana show a great deal of feigning ignorance. What is more, Švarc Pipan, the Minister of Finance Klemen Boštjančič, and the Prime Minister Robert Golob are in over their heads in a swamp of illegality.
The first information received by Nova24TV about parts of the audit of the Ministry of Justice and then the disclosure of the full report by the mainstream media, the essential part of which is the findings of the illegal reallocation of 6.5 million euros of funds for the purchase of a court building for 7.7 million euros, have really caused quite a stir at the very top of the government.
Former Minister of Justice Dominika Švarc Pipan, the Minister of Finance Klemen Boštjančič, and the Prime Minister Robert Golob, bear direct responsibility for what happened.
It is interesting to note the reaction of former Minister Švarc Pipan, who, according to our interlocutors, is still repeating untruths that have been repeated many times already.
Švarc Pipan refused to be audited
In her reaction to the audit report, Švarc Pipan explained to the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) that she had requested an internal audit of the purchase of the court building in January and was assured by the now-former State Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Uroš Gojkovič, that it was already underway. Švarc Pipan claims that this is not the case, and that the Ministry had not prepared the documentation on the basis of which she could have ordered the audit. She stated that she had requested a call for an external audit, but due to the expiry of her mandate, it was not ordered, and according to her information, the new management of the Ministry did not order one either.
However, this is not the case. As we have been able to find out, Dominika Švarc Pipan never ordered the audit, nor was it her wish to do so – it was only her successor, Andreja Katič – the current Minister of Justice, who ordered it. Moreover, according to well-informed sources, the audit was obstructed by Minister Švarc Pipan so that the auditors would not have access to all the documents. They also had limited access under Minister Katič, which means that she herself also wanted to influence the investigation.
False report to the National Bureau of Investigation
Former Minister Švarc Pipan even described the auditors as a “well-organised group”. “The framework that this well-organised company, which brought the auditor in question to the Ministry, is trying to set is that we who provided the funds are to blame, not those who misled us, the decision-makers, with fraudulent, manipulated and falsified documentation, including a proven falsified energy performance certificate for the building,” she said in her response. “This is the bottom line – all the project documentation prepared by the Secretariat, which was led at the time by Gojkovič, is fabricated,” she stressed. She also believes that this is a diversion of attention from those who are officially suspected of wrongdoings and are being investigated by the National Bureau of Investigation (NPU) in this case.
But according to our information, this report to the National Bureau of Investigation is entirely fabricated and is intended to divert attention to the lower-level officials on whom Švarc Pipan wants to shift the blame and for whom the audit report states that “the officials who participated in the drafting of the contract and who checked and approved its contents did not act in breach of any law or by-law …” At the same time, it says that the Ministry was warned about the unreasonable deadlines and irrationality of the purchase of the court building by the said employees, but the Ministry’s management ignored them. The employees themselves have sent more than 80 different documents to the National Bureau of Investigation, which means that the story could turn against Švarc Pipan.
After all, the audit report also proves that all of the allegations made by Dominika Švarc Pipan have been nothing but lies. In a country ruled by the rule of law, which Dominika Švarc Pipan likes to swear by, sometimes you have to trust the profession.
C. Š.
