Recently, the web portal Požareport reported that the “miracle boy of the energy sector,” Robert Golob, who is also the latest “new face” of the leftists, has made blatant violations of the Act Governing the Remuneration of Managers of Companies with Majority Ownership held by the Republic of Slovenia, and he should apparently return millions of euros to the state. But as it turns out, he is not worried about the unravelling of the perfectly justified criminal complaint that could be made against him. Instead of his solo performances and public rallies, where he talks in high-profile slogans, we should be getting some explanations from him about when he intends to return the astronomical illegally obtained amounts to the state treasury.
But according to the reports of the investigative journalist Bojan Požar, we are witnessing a well-known scenario of “inflating balloons” called “the new faces.” On tonight’s episode of the news show 24ur, a pre-ordered poll conducted by Mediana is expected to be published, in accordance with the agreement, which is expected to declare Robert Golob as the candidate who the majority wants to become the Prime Minister. And on Monday, the 24th of January, the “miracle boy of the energy sector” intends to make an appearance at a very special press conference, with the intention of revealing his political project.
This is, of course, a scenario for the naïve voters, as Golob actually already has a very long political career. He is a former prominent politician or government official who worked under the auspices of the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia party (Liberalna demokracija Slovenije – LDS). He was also the vice-president of the Positive Slovenia party (Pozitivna Slovenija), led by the mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković, and he was also the vice-president of the Party of Alenka Bratušek (Stranka Alenke Bratušek – SAB). Therefore, he is only returning to the political scene, and not with the intention of expelling some mythical “fascists” or fighting for “freedom.”
The real intention of his return to power is to retain the – allegedly in part illegal – privileges, the property (money) he has managed to rake in as the head of the semi-monopoly state-owned energy company Gen-I, as his fourth term at the top of the company ended last year, and the government of Janez Janša did not want to give him another term in office. It is important to note here that he held the position of Director or President of the Management Board in a state-owned company “with by far the highest salary in the country,” which he paid himself illegally.
Golob owes the state millions of euros
According to Požar, the amount of 18 thousand euros net per month is underestimated. Požar also added that the so-called Lahovnik’s Law, meaning the Act Governing the Remuneration of Managers of Companies with Majority Ownership held by the Republic of Slovenia, which also applies to Golob’s salaries, has not been in force only since 2020, and not earlier. The act in question deals with companies that are in direct or indirect state ownership, and this also applies to Gen-I. Namely, Gen-I was half-owned by the company Gen Energija, which is 100 percent state-owned. The remaining half of Gen-I was owned, among others, by Petrol, which is also state-owned, and later by Elektro Ljubljana. These are all companies that are mostly or at least partially owned by the state.
As a result, the mathematical sum of the state’s share in Gen-I has always exceeded 50 percent, which means that Lahovnik’s Law applied to Golob’s salary for at least a few years. In accordance with the aforementioned law, Golob could have received a maximum of 18 thousand euros gross, while he was actually being paid a salary of around 45 thousand euros goss per month, thus exceeding the limit by about 27 thousand euros per month. However, what is the most unusual thing about this entire situation, is that neither the Ministry of the Economy, nor the company Gen, nor the Slovenian Sovereign Holding, have asked Golob to return all of the overpaid salaries up to this point, despite the fact that we are talking about millions of euros by now.
He should be thinking about prison, not the prime minister’s chair
The current law even requires that illegal payments be virtually automatically annulled. It is also interesting to note that no criminal charges have been filed in relation to this. This raises the question of whether this is the case because Martin Novšak is the signatory of all Golob’s contracts on behalf of the state, who is also the President of the Management Board of the Gen company. The fact is that Golob should be more concerned about criminal persecution than about him connecting with potential future political associates.
Domen Mezeg
