The government under the leadership of the President of the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje svoboda), Robert Golob, has not even come to power yet, but we are already hearing predictions about upcoming revanchism. Given that many things came to light before the election, despite the fact that the mainstream media diligently kept silent about it so that there would be no bad response from the potential voters, the fact is that they do not want the scandals that plagued Golob before the elections to continue to spread. One of these scandals is undoubtedly also the affair which revealed a case of financing of journalists that were to the leftists’ liking, at the expense of the state through the state-owned Gen-I energy company.
Despite the fact that the Necenzurirano (Uncensored) web portal is an obscure website created exclusively for the purpose of settling the score with the leader of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), Janez Janša, and those who dare to cooperate with him in any way, the web portal still receives a considerable amount of funds from state-owned companies. At one of the recent meetings of a parliamentary commission, Prime Minister Janša revealed that as much as 600 thousand euros went from the state-owned Telekom to the Uncensored web portal during the time of left-wing governments. According to Janša, the state-owned energy company Gen-I, where Robert Golob was the President of the Management Board for many years, paid 103 thousand euros for the portal.
In addition, the portal in question also received money from foreign-owned private companies. The Chinese-owned company Gorenje transferred 70 thousand euros to the web portal’s accounts. “This is the interference of a foreign country in the internal affairs of another country. In the USA, such things are always investigated. I hope that the competent institutions will investigate this in our country as well,” Janša said at the time.
At the beginning of March, the Požareport web portal revealed that in the case of financing journalists that are to the leftists’ liking with money from the state budget, the person being financed was Vesna Vuković from the Uncensored web portal, which is controlled by tycoon Martin Odlazek. Namely, Vuković is the person who founded a private company and then transferred it to another person in 2019, and the company was financed by none other than the Gen-I energy company under Golob’s leadership. Journalist Bojan Požar also revealed that in this case, the financing was not used for advertising or paying for content published on the portal for which Vuković writes but for transferring funds from one place to another through fictitious “consulting contracts” to the transaction account of a privately owned company. With all this, it should be emphasised that this company does not represent the owner of the portal. It should also be pointed out that the company in question is not a marketing agency, as one might expect. This is a company dedicated to business consulting.
But let’s recap what happened first. The company SEE M. & C., d.o.o., created 81,235.60 euros of revenue in 2019 and 80,778.94 in expenses. It paid 86.80 euros in tax, and the net profit only amounted to 369.21 euros. Vuković’s company has no employees, which is extremely unusual in light of these earnings. Based on all of this, Požar concluded that apparently, somebody is issuing invoices as if they are a sole proprietor with normalised expenses. He also wondered about the actual purpose of this company – is it, for example, billing for texts? He also expressed his belief that the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia should thoroughly investigate the matter in question. As he said, very similar things are happening in the company Providentia d.o.o., which owns the aforementioned media outlet.
While the Gorenje company had no problems disclosing information about the financing of the SEE M. & C. d.o.o. company (it did so in one day), the story was completely different when it came to the Gen-I energy company. The latter wrote in their response that “the company does not disclose contracts and transactions that are marked as business secrets and were concluded at the time when the Gen-I company was not yet a business entity under the predominant influence of public law entities and was therefore not liable under the Public Information Access Act.” They also explained that the Gen-I company has only been liable under the Public Information Access Act since its change in ownership structure in 2021. However, data from the Erar web application for the portrayal of public money use in Slovenia, it is clear that money was being transferred from the Gen-I company accounts to the SEE M. & C. company account. Namely, in January, the former transferred 3,660 euros to the latter. So, we know that, if nothing else, at least that much was transferred to the company SEE M. & C. As the Gen-I company did not want to disclose the information, the Information Commissioner then also called on them to disclose it.
Right before the elections (on the 20th of April), the Siol web portal published evidence revealing that Golob and his inner circle are delaying the disclosure of information about the dealings between the Gen-I company and journalist Vuković, trying to make sure that the information is only disclosed in the post-election period. “I will be very direct here. The answer to this question will be given by the company itself, because I can no longer speak on behalf of the company. I have no authority. As you know, we have a management board. So, the management board should make sure that the answer is exact,” Golob said when he was caught unprepared before the election. With the published correspondence, the Siol web portal proved that Gen-I is not only hiding the contract with the journalist from the Uncensored web portal from the public but also from the Gen Energija (Gen Energy) group, which is its largest state owner. Gen-I explained that the parallel collection and analysis of collected data is taking such a long time because the head of the sick leave of their head of marketing and public relations, who is the holder and custodian of all business relations with external contractors in the field. Additionally, they also tried to defend themselves by saying that they could not deliver the information before the elections because of the upcoming holidays and the collective annual leave in the companies.
“The affair of the covert financing of Vesna Vuković, a journalist from Odlazek’s web portal Uncensored through the state-owned company Gen-I, during the time when Golob was its management board, and on which 103 thousand euros were spent, is now just waiting to be officially confirmed or revealed, based on the decision of the Information Commissioner. However, the current leadership of the Gen-I company (headed by Igor Koprivnikar, a long-time close associate of Robert Golob) is almost certainly delaying the disclosure of the agreement with Golob, even though the parliamentary elections are now over,” Požareport wrote at the beginning of May.
After the outbreak of the affair, a quick change in leadership happened in Vuković’s company
The company SEE M. & C., d.o.o., was founded by Vuković, who was also its director for a while, but then she transferred the ownership of the company to Mitja Zorko, who is unknown to the general public. However, as we have previously reported, it is known that Zorko lives in Celje, in the same neighbourhood as Primož Cirman, the editor and another journalist of the Uncensored web portal. With this, Požar wondered whether the whole thing was really just a coincidence or was there something else behind all of this. And what is also interesting is that after the outbreak of the affair, there was a change in company ownership.
The web portal E-bonitete reveals that on the 15th of March this year, the company SEE M. & C., Business Consulting, renamed into KCA, Business Consulting and Measurements, and on the 13th of April, Zorko resigned from his position. Cirman, Vuković’s coworker, became the new director, and the company MEDIA PARTNER AGENCIJA d.o.o., which is 100% owned by Svet24 d.o.o., became the 100% owner of the aforementioned company. As is known, the company Svet24 d.o.o. is owned by Martin Odlazek’s ex-wife, Alena Nardini (formerly Alena Odlazek). And thus, the circle is compete.
IN the pre-election period, the company MEDIA PARTNER AGENCIJA d.o.o. was very active. The Ljubljana-based agency, whose director is Petra Rupnik, arranged for the publication of the pre-election bulletin “Gremo volit” (Let’s Go Vote), which was more of a political bulleting for the left-wing pole than an actual encouragement for the citizens to go vote. They highlighted a big interview with Aleksander Čeferin, who is considered a stern opponent of the current government. Namely, he described Prime Minister Janša as Count Dracula on one occasion and let him know that he would be very pleased with a change of government. It is interesting that the interview with Čeferin was written by none other than the journalists of the Uncensored web portal, Primož Cirman and Vesna Vuković. Apparently, the bonds of certain individuals are incredibly intertwined.
The renaming of the company from See M. & C. d.o.o., to KCA d.o.o., probably happened with the purpose of erasing all traces. With Požar’s revelations, it became clear to many that the company was intended for private financing of Vuković and her anti-government activities. As there are concerns about the possible misuse of Slovenian taxpayers’ money, this case should undoubtedly be investigated by the competent institutions. This is especially true in light of Gen-I’s stalling, which unequivocally adds a bitter aftertaste to the whole affair.
Sara Kovač
