In 2021, the current President of the Republic, Nataša Pirc Musar, together with the NGO the Legal Network for the Protection of Democracy (Pravna mreža za varstvo demokracije), filed a criminal complaint against the then-Director of the Government Communication Office (UKOM), Uroš Urbanija. The Court of Audit has now found that the latter acted in accordance with the contract.
In the spring of 2021, the Legal Network for the Protection of Democracy (headed by Katarina Bervar Sternad), in cooperation with the law firm Pirc Musar & Lemut Strle, filed a criminal complaint against Uroš Urbanija with the prosecutor’s office in Ljubljana for non-compliance with his legal obligations towards the Slovenian Press Agency (STA). They accused the then-Director of the Government Communication Office of, among other things, taking advantage of his position, exceeding the limits of his official rights and failing to perform an official duty.
The Court of Audit agrees with Urbanija!
According to the Slovenian Press Agency, on Monday, the Court of Audit published an audit in which it generally agreed with Urbanija. The latter sees the audit as a confirmation of the positions he defended in his official position at the time, when he stopped the funding of the Slovenian Press Agency in 2020-2021. If he were to decide otherwise at the time, he would have merely continued the years of illegal activities of his predecessors and of the then-Director of the Press Agency Bojan Veselinovič.
The Government Communication Office can stop funding the Press Agency under the contract
Urbanija recalled that he had acted in accordance with the contract between the Slovenian Press Agency and the Government Communication Office. The contract states that “if the Slovenian Press Agency does not respond to requests for documentation, the Government Communication Office may suspend payments under this contract or even withdraw from the contract by written declaration without notice”. In the light of the Court of Audit’s audit, Urbanija believes that it is now clear that the then-Press Agency Director, Veselinovič, signed illegal contracts for several years.
Urbanija blames Veselinovič for the unregulated funding
Urbanija filed criminal charges against Veselinovič when the financing was first stopped (he also filed a criminal charge against his predecessor, Kristina Plavšak Krajnc), but the prosecutor’s office dismissed the charges, which is in clear contradiction with today’s findings of the Court of Audit. According to Urbanija, the Court of Audit divided the blame for the situation between the Slovenian Press Agency and the Government Communication Office. However, Urbanija attributes the blame for the fact that the financing was not immediately sorted out solely to Veselinovič.
Pirc Musar wanted to force Urbanija to act illegally!
Urbanija recalled that Veselinovič’s successor, Igor Kadunc, and he signed a new contract within a week. He recalled in particular the pressures exerted by the current President, Pirc Musar, and the candidate for Human Rights Ombudsman, Bervar Sternad, and their criminal charges pressed against him. All in an attempt to make him act illegally as the Director of the Government Communication Office and to make him succumb to pressure from left-wing politicians. It took the “depoliticised police” over three years to draw up a criminal charge on the basis of this denunciation, to hand it over to the prosecutor’s office, and for the latter to hand it over to the court. It will be very interesting to follow further proceedings in this case.
Domen Mezeg
