The takeover of the Ministry of Culture by the far-left Left party (Levica) and its Coordinator, Asta Vrečko, has made the Ministry a kingdom for left-wing non-governmental organisations and the self-employed in culture. Every week, we hear about some new esoteric public tender for funds for NGOs or deserving artists who fought the battle of the left-wing political parties in the street throughout the term of the previous, Janša government. For some time now, however, there have been indications that Asta Vrečko has been actively interfering in official procedures at the ministry, which is, of course, a criminal offence.
According to the media outlet Požareport, there is open systemic corruption happening at the Ministry, where the Minister’s advisors and loyal officials pressure the full-time officials and force them to change certain decisions, and NGOs themselves call the Ministry and demand privileges.
All the Minister’s men
Although Vrečko is not supposed to intervene directly in official matters, she does use her colleagues to do so – namely, Peter Baroš, adviser to the Minister, and Rok Avbar, head of the Arts Sector, have both been mentioned in relation to this, the latter being an officially documented case, as the official is supposed to have added an official note to the case about pressure from her superiors and “calls” from NGOs.
In an e-mail, Peter Baroš, following the Minister’s instructions, asked for a reconsideration of the matter of the Republic recognition fee. This is, of course, an indirect pressure by the Minister to get officials to reverse the decision in the case, with the Minister’s advisor questioning whether such a request should be entered into Krpan (the information system used by the public administration) – that is, suggesting that the case of sharing taxpayers’ money to an artist should be taken past the official entries in the system, which is, of course, a criminal offence. In the e-mail, Baroš wrote: “The Minister has asked me to put together and then forward to you the argumentation for reconsideration of the Republic recognition fee in the case 1030-8/2024-3340. This is a request that the commission deal with his application again and consider it again, in light of this argumentation, which is attached. Could you please just let me know if it is okay as it is, or should we also publish it in Krpan? I do not have any experience with this yet, so I would be very happy to get some advice from you. Thank you!
Kind regards”
We also obtained an official record of an example of an NGO member calling the Ministry officials repeatedly to demand a favour from the Ministry. Here is what the record says:
“OFFICIAL NOTE
I received a call from Urška Centa at 1.40 p.m. today, who is attacking me for not picking up the phone when she called the previous week because I was busy at the time, when she needed some information. She told me that she had not received the information necessary from the Ministry of Culture and blamed me for it. When I explained to her that my phone rang every 20 seconds because of all the 129 calls for updates, she said that they were the ones who were entitled to information. When I asked why she had not simply sent me an e-mail, she said that she just did not do it, because she wanted to ask me about it. She said that she, not the person responsible, had signed the addendum to the Nest application and that it was a mistake, and demanded that I allow her to correct the said mistake. I told her that there were LEGAL DEADLINES for the amendment, after which she asked for an exception to be made because she had also spoken to Mr Rok Avbar, who had advised her on how to complete the application, even though Mr Avbar is not the competent person to share such information.
Since Mrs Urška Centa continued to pressure me, asking to be allowed to correct this mistake and even demanding that their application be taken into account no matter what, as she is about to become the person in charge of this Association, I told her that the legal deadlines have already passed and that I was not willing to make illegal decisions and that we all need to stick to legal deadlines, which Mrs Centa refused to accept. I also told her that all of the decisions are taken by the competent commission, not me personally, and that it was wrong of her to sign the application, instead of the person in charge.
I also find it problematic that Mr Rok Avbar has once again communicated privately with his friends who are applicants, which is a completely corrupt act, and also not the first time this has happened, because as early as on the 9th of January 2024, while moving from one office to another, he called me to his office and asked me to explain the applications – at the time, it was in relation to the case of the Jadran Society, which had also contacted him privately, thereby putting pressure on the work of the official. He told me that I had to be careful with the NGOs, that they were a different kind of people, that it was a different DNA, and also that we had to be careful what we were doing to make the Association happy. And then, on the 10th of January 2024, Gal Furlan communicated directly with Mr Rok Avbar and wanted to arrange the amendments through him, even though I am listed as the competent person for this everywhere, as is also evidenced by the communication in the attached file. When I mentioned this to Mr Avbar, that this was an act of corruption, he came straight to my office, explained that he had received this enquiry from the main office, which he was lying about, because the communication clearly shows that Mr Furlan had contacted him directly. I also explained to Urška Centa that I would make an official note of our conversation.”
The NGOs are ruling
This is a stunning official note, which, of course, the Public Sector Inspectorate should have reacted to (it must have seen it), but apparently, nothing has happened so far. The NGO member Urška Centa made a very obvious threat, specifically referring to Rok Avbar, the head of the arts sector, who was supposed to be advising her on how to complete the incorrect application – however, not only is he not competent to do so, but the fact that he is involved in a procedure (where the deadline has already been missed) contains elements of a criminal offence. Similarly, the NGO member Gal Furlan, through Avbar, was also trying to force the amendments.
From the official note, it looks as if the NGOs have secured a kind of bypass through the colleagues of Minister Asta Vrečko, through which they can also get corrections to be allowed past the legal deadlines. If they are allowed to do this, then it is clear that the tenders themselves, where they are competing for taxpayers’ money, are completely illegitimate, because any official procedure involving Asta Vrečko and her colleagues is suspect. How do we know that the NGOs are only calling for the legal deadline to be met? What if they are also calling to get the actual substance of the procedures?
Sources also told Požareport that in many cases of awarding public money in tenders, Rok Avbar literally overruled the opinions of the expert commissions, and officials are obliged to send the lists of applications (for status and money) considered by the expert commissions to Minister Vrečko’s cabinet for information (as confirmed by the minutes of a meeting from the beginning of 2024), although the Minister should have no influence on the decisions (the expert commissions always decide, the Minister can only send the case back for reconsideration, but is then bound by the new opinion of the expert commission).
The official note requires action
An e-mail from the Minister’s adviser pressuring the official was leaked to the media in secret. However, the official note concerning the pressure by the Head of the Arts Sector and “his” NGOs has been in the system for quite some time, without any reaction from the Inspectorate. Will the internal services of the Ministry of the Interior and the law enforcement authorities finally come to their senses and do something about it?
After all, it was the NGOs that were going crazy in the streets, accusing Simoniti’s official not only of illegality but even of neo-Nazism. The then-Minister was subsequently investigated by the police after the Ministry revoked the self-employed status of rapper Zlatan Ćordić.
I. K.
