Tomaž Vesel has now officially become a director of Martin Odlazek’s “Dolenjski list” media outlet. On the 1st of July, Vesel replaced the now-former director, Gregor Repič, as head of the newspaper. Vesel is known to the Slovenian public primarily for the fact that in addition to the salary he received as the President of the Court of Audit, he also received some “side income” from FIFA (the international football federation) in the amount of 200 thousand euros per year.
We announced Vesel’s departure to Odlazek’s safe haven about a month ago. The controversial now-former President was supposed to leave the Court of Audit in mid-May already, but his mandate was extended, as the new government did not yet have a new candidate for his position at the time. The deputies then elected his successor, Jana Ahčin, on the 1st of June.
Tomaž Vesel thus became part of the illegal garbage-media empire, which owns more than 60 different media outlets, including magazines, newspapers, radio stations, online media, and even one television station – even though Slovenian legislation explicitly prohibits such ownership. The newspaper “Dolensjki list” is part of the Media24 media group, part of which is also the Salomon company, the printed media Svet24, the magazine Reporter, the newspaper Novi tednik, and most Slovenian radio stations (among them Radio Aktual, Radio Celje, Radio Veseljak).
Dolenjski list is the majority owner of the company Salomon, which publishes the sports daily Ekipa, and the magazines Jana, Vklop, Zvezve, Salomonov oglasnik and Salomonov ugankar, reports the Slovenian Press Agency.
Just an interim director?
But Vesel is said to only be moving to Odlazek temporarily, as he supposedly has other, much bigger ambitions. After his failed candidacy for the Slovenian representative at the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg (the previous government instead decided to appoint Vesel’s deputy, Jorg Kristjan Petrovič, to that position), he set his eyes on the mayor’s office in the municipality of Ljubljana. He is said to have already shared this ambition with the current Prime Minister, Robert Golob.
The lost consent
Before Vesel was defeated by a former Indian referee at the FIFA vote, Vesel held the position of supervisor there, with which he earned about 200 thousand additional euros per year. But in order to be able to carry out this “additional” activity while also holding the responsible position of the President of the Court of Audit, he would have had to obtain the consent from the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption. When the news about his high earnings was leaked to the public, Vesel claimed that he had obtained the Commission’s consent but later lost the form somewhere. Meanwhile, the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption made it clear that they did not find Vesel’s consent form anywhere.
The story is thus yet to get an epilogue, as Vesel has still not admitted the obvious, which isthat he certainly never had this consent and that, as a result, his earnings abroad were not legal. And if he really decides to become a candidate in the local elections, he will definitely not be able to avoid questions related to this topic.
Andrej Žitnik
