Govt and STA still on opposite sides over funding

Ljubljana – The prime minister’s office maintains that the Government Communication Office (UKOM) does not need any special authorisation from the government to act as the government’s representative in relation to the STA.

The response comes after STA director Bojan Veselinovič urged PM Janez Janša and ministers as representatives of the STA founder to authorise UKOM or another government body to act on behalf of the founder so that the STA could send it all the documents UKOM has been requesting.

Veselinovič argued in his letter dated 31 March that in this way the STA management could hand over all the required information or documents in line with the law.

The prime minister chief-of-staff, Peter Šuhel, said in statement Veselinovič had never asked for an explicit government authorisation for UKOM when signing the contracts with UKOM before.

“This is logical because as a government agency, UKOM does not need any additional authorisation,” Šuhel wrote on Thursday.

He said UKOM had urged Veselinovič last October to provide all documents to assess how much funds the STA would need in 2021, while UKOM urged the STA again to sign the annual contract with UKOM in February and March.

“Unfortunately there is no interest on your part to respect the signed contracts or UKOM’s lawful requests,” he said.

In response, Veselinovič said today he did not ask for government authorisation so that the STA could sign a contract with UKOM but so that it could send it the required documents.

Veselinovič said it was up to the government to decide how to carry out its legal obligation of financing the STA’s public service.

However, any other corporate powers are carried out by the government, he said.

This is so because “if an institution tried to take corporate decisions in relation to the STA in its capacity of the STA’s shareholder, its decision would be unlawful”.

The same applies to other corporate powers under the companies act, including access to information or documents, Veselinovič argued.

He rejected the claim that UKOM had urged him to sign the contract for public service in February and March, saying it only rejected the STA’s January and February bills.

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