The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food, as the second instance authority, has upheld the appeal of farmer Rudi Možgan, whose 24 head of cattle were confiscated on the 14th of November by the Novo mesto veterinary inspector Danuša Štiglic. The decision to confiscate the cattle was found to be unlawful and was therefore annulled.
The Ministry upheld the complaint in its entirety and found that Štiglič had committed serious breaches of the General Administrative Procedure Act in the procedure. The decision to confiscate the animals was annulled and returned to the Novo mesto unit for a new decision, with a different inspector. Danuša Štiglic had already been excluded from the proceedings. The Inspectorate for Public Administration is also proposing to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Štiglic. The violations at the Možgan farm are not the only ones committed by Inspector Danuša Štiglic in her work so far. She has acted similarly in many other cases of confiscated animals, but no one has stopped her so far.
It is important to note that Danuša Štiglic was even Prime Minister Robert Golob‘s choice to head the Administration for Food Safety, Veterinary Sector and Plant Protection in the summer, but this was strongly opposed by veterinarians. Golob was allegedly suggested this name by his intimate partner Tina Gaber.
And what serious violations of the General Administrative Procedure Act did Inspector Danuša Štiglic commit? “Practically everything was done wrong in the procedure in question. The inspector did not respect the provisions of the General Administrative Procedure Act, nor the Inspection Act, she did not conduct the procedure correctly, she did not write down the minutes correctly or at all, as they were incomplete, written in only a few sentences. An oral decision was issued, but was not explained properly. There was no determination of the condition of the animals, and the client was not given the opportunity to be heard and to participate in the procedure,” explained Matoz, who sees the biggest shortcoming in the fact that the inspector “did not even determine the condition of the animals.” This is what Franci Matoz, Možgan’s defence lawyer, explained on a recent episode of the show 24ur.
Matoz expects the Inspectorate, as the first instance authority, under the direction of a different inspector or official veterinarian, to issue a decision on the return of the cattle to the Možgan family as soon as possible. Yesterday, he said, he had already spoken to the inspector who had taken over the case. He expects a new decision to be issued quickly, probably in mid-January. According to previous media reports, the illegally confiscated animals were found in four locations (Mokronog, two locations near Velenje, and allegedly near Radeče).
The illegal seizure of animals took place over a period of four hours, on the 14th of November.
Moja Dolenjska
