In addition to his regular salary at the faculty, in 2009, Jože P. Damijan also earned six thousand euros per month from the state budget, with a job for the Post and Electronic Communications Agency (Agencija za pošto in elektronske komunikacije – APEK). He was analysing the services offered by mobile network operators. In total, he earned 47,390 euros gross in a few months, for a 30-page report. Mladina journalist Borut Mekina calculated that Damijan earned an incredible 1,500 euros for every page of the report.
The candidate for the position of Prime Minister, who is being promoted by Luka Mesec (Levica), Tanja Fajon (SD), Marjan Šarec (LMŠ) – who is also providing additional earnings for Damijan, even though he is employed in the public sector – and Alenka Bratušek (SAB) under the name Constitutional Arch Coalition (Koalicija ustavnega loka – KUL, meaning “cool”), Jože P. Damijan, is very skilful when it comes to filling his pockets with the money from the state budget.
In March 2011, journalist Borut Mekina wrote an article for the weekly Mladina, whose editor at the time was Grega Repovž, about Damijan’s excellently paid job that he was doing for a state agency, which he got while working full-time at the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana. To summarise Mekina’s article, Damijan, whose salary at the state faculty was estimated at 2,000 euros net by Mekina, earned another 6,000 euros from the state budget per month in 2009, with a job for the Post and Electronic Communications Agency (APEK). He analysed the services of mobile network operators.
In total, he earned 47,390 euros gross in a few months, for a report that was 30 pages long. Mekina calculated that Damijan earned an incredible 1,500 euros for one typed page of the report. Mekina also wrote: “According to the sources cited in the study, Damijan did not actually make the model. The model, as well as the written formula, are described and published on the website of the International Telecommunication Union, where anyone can download the so-called “toolkit” for the national agencies.”
And now, the virtuoso in earning money from the state budget for his private accounts is the protagonist of another article written by Mekina, entitled “Hope.” We do not know whether the title was written by Mekina or Repovž. In any case, the article that was written by the same author, about the same person, for the same weekly, is interesting. And Grega Repovž is still the editor. On the cover of Mladina, which was published a month and a half ago, in mid-October 2020, there is a portrait of the same civil servant, professor at the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana, Damijan.
The state budget “businessmen” are also Damijan’s friends. We have already reported on the role of Bogdan Biščak in a company that earned millions and is now bankrupt. Even an influential member of the SD party, Metka Tekavčič, stepped on Damijan’s toes when it came to making business by earning money from the state budget, as she initiated proceedings against him, which resulted in him being the first person at the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana, who violated the faculty’s principles of integrity.
Sara Kovač
